In 2023, ten people died from unprovoked shark attacks, slightly higher than the five-year average.
The Florida Museum of Natural History’s report revealed 69 unprovoked shark bites, mostly in the US and Australia.
Provoked bites occur when humans initiate interaction with sharks, while unprovoked bites happen in the shark’s natural habitat with no human provocation.
“We’re biologists and so we want to know what the natural behavior of these animals is,” International Shark Attack File director Gavin Naylor said. “When they come closer to shore, is it associated with a full moon? Is it associated with fish spawning?”
“The most conspicuous thing seems to be the number of fatalities,” Naylor said.
“We’ve had blips in fatalities up and down each year, but I do think that the white shark populations are doing a little bit better,” he said.
The report emphasized the rarity of shark attacks and recommended precautions to lower the risk.
The US had the highest number of unprovoked attacks, followed by Australia.
The report also acknowledged potential underreporting of shark attacks globally.
“I think that we do a good job of collecting data for countries with infrastructure that report these kinds of things, and so then it’s comparable one year to the next because we’re dealing with apples-to-apples comparisons,” he said.
“But do I think that we’re catching every single bite that happens around the world every year? Absolutely not.”
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