March 2013    Download the Entire Issue (PDF)

Vol. 28, No. 3   What's this?

Don’t Call Them “Shark Attacks” Anymore

from the March, 2013 issue of Undercurrent  

Subscriber Content Preview
Only active subscribers can view the whole article

Now, Christopher Neff of the University of Sydney in Australia and Robert Hueter, leader of Mote Marine Laboratory's Center for Shark Research in Sarasota, FL propose a new system of classification to support more accurate scientific reporting about "shark interactions."Their study, published in January in the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, analyzed shark statistics worldwide and found the term "shark attack" misleading in many cases. For instance, a 2009 government report from New South Wales, Australia, documented 200 shark attacks, but 38 of those involved no injuries to people. In Florida, often called the "Shark Attack Capital of the World," only 11 fatal bites have been recorded over the past 129 years, a lower number than several other locations in the world....