The world’s shark assault hotspots aren’t the place you would possibly anticipate
On Thursday, a 23-year-old Russian man died after being mauled by a shark within the shallows off the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Hurghada, some 300 miles south of Cairo.
Russian state media confirmed he was a full-time resident there, and news outlet Baza subsequently named him as Vladimir Popov. His girlfriend managed to flee.
Egypt’s atmosphere ministry recognized the animal as a tiger shark. A video shot by an onlooker from the shore reveals the sufferer thrashing round and being dragged underwater. His father was additionally on the seaside.
While such assaults are uncommon within the Red Sea, they don’t seem to be remarkable. In 2022, two ladies – one Australian and the opposite Romanian – had been killed simply days aside by sharks in Hurghada.
The International Shark Attack File (ISAF) defines “unprovoked bites” as “incidents in which a bite on a live human occurs in the shark’s natural habitat with no human provocation of the shark”. They rely 3,349 unwarranted assaults globally since information started.
Of these, extra happened within the US than anyplace else. Just beneath half of the entire – 1,604 incidents (48 p.c) – occurred in America’s coastal waters.
Bathers in Florida are constantly these most affected. It comes as no shock that the ISAF is run by the Florida Museum, which additionally retains up an interactive map of the specific location of attacks.
The Sunshine State might have recorded no fatalities final 12 months, however its 16 bites represented 28 p.c of the worldwide whole alone.
Zooming in additional, Volusia County, nestled between Orlando and the Atlantic and residential to the vacationer hub of Daytona Beach, accounted for seven of those. Last August, local news reported three shark attacks there within the space of a week.
After the US, Australia was discovered to be the second-most possible place to be bitten by a shark, with 691 occurrences in whole. This was adopted by South Africa (260), Brazil (111) and New Zealand (57). Egypt ranked solely twelfth with simply 24 to its title.
Identifying the species of shark concerned is usually troublesome, as sufferer observations of the perpetrating beast are not often dependable. Three, nevertheless, stand out.
The IFS singles out the “Big Three”: massive species which are “capable of inflicting serious injuries to a victim” and which are “commonly found in areas where humans enter the water, and have teeth designed to shear rather than hold”.
These are white, bull and tiger – as within the Egyptian case – sharks. A kill rely of 59, 26 and 39 has been attributed to each of those species respectively.