SHARK ATTACKS – ABACO, BAHAMAS, & BEYOND

August 3, 2020 by Rolling Harbour

SHARK ATTACKS – ABACO, BAHAMAS & BEYOND

DATABASE UPDATE 2023

ANNOUNCEMENT

DECEMBER 18 2023

Two days ago, a woman was tragically killed by a shark off Nassau. She and her husband were paddleboarding nearly a mile offshore. Few details have been reported at present, as is only right in the circumstances. In November there had been a presumed fatality off West End, Grand Bahama when a woman diver was attacked and has not been found. Such incidents are exceptionally rare for the region, with Bahamas having a consistent history of low attack figures.

This page has had a great many visits over the past 48 hours, for obvious reasons. At this time further comment would be quite inappropriate. We extend deep and respectful sympathy to the families and friends of those involved. Such terrible events should be given due privacy for those who are grieving.

This notice has also been posted on the other differently arranged Shark Attack page HERE

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DATABASE UPDATE 2022

Screenshot 2023-12-05 at 17.02.52

SUMMARY

Global total of unprovoked shark bites significantly lower than average

Country	Total	Fatal
USA	41	1
Australia	9	0
Egypt	2	2
South Africa	2	2
Brazil	1	0
New Zealand	1	0
Thailand	1	0
Worldwide	57	5

The 2022 worldwide total of 57 confirmed unprovoked cases is lower than the most recent five-year (2017-2021) average of 70 incidents annually. There were nine shark-related fatalities this year, five of which are assigned as unprovoked. This number is in line with the 5 year annual global average of six unprovoked fatalities per year.

Annual fluctuations in shark-human interactions are common. Despite 2021’s spike in fatalities, 2022 was a return to typical long-term trends which show a decreasing number of annual fatalities. Year-to-year variability in oceanographic, socioeconomic and meteorological conditions significantly influences the local abundance of sharks and humans in the water.

BAHAMAS STATS

Confirmed Unprovoked Shark Attacks (1749-Present)

Risk of being bitten by a shark remains extremely low

Short-term trends show both fatal and non-fatal bites to be decreasing. The total number of unprovoked shark bites worldwide is extremely low, given the number of people participating in aquatic recreation each year. Fatality rates have been declining for decades, reflecting advances in beach safety, medical treatment and public awareness.

DATABASE UPDATE 2021

INTERNATIONAL SHARK ATTACK FILE

Over the last couple of weeks or so I have been getting a lot of hits for Shark Attack information. There have been 2 or 3 recent incidents including a tragic (and very rare) death in Maine, which may well account for this. The Shark Attack details I have accumulated and posted over the years are buried in an historical sub-sub-page, so to make things easier I have re-checked and updated the latest data resources and their links, and put them in a mainstream post. This is it.

DATABASE UPDATE 2020

INTERNATIONAL SHARK ATTACK FILE

PRIMARY RESOURCE

This resource is the portal to a mass of current, recent, and historical data, presented with authority and clarity. It provides undoubtedly the most comprehensive and accessible global shark-incident data of all.

Last year I included informative screen-shots taken from this site. For now I am confining the information to the most useful direct links. More work for the reader, perhaps, but also a better chance to explore and understand the hows, whens and wherefores of shark-related incidents – and how best to avoid the situation in the first place.

SITE LINK

https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/shark-attacks/

BAHAMAS-SPECIFIC

https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/shark-attacks/maps/na/bahamas-antilles/

“The 2019 worldwide total of 64 confirmed unprovoked cases were lower than the most recent five-year (2014-2018) average of 82 incidents annually. There were five fatal attacks this year, two of which were confirmed to be unprovoked. This number is in line with the annual global average of four fatalities per year“

MENU SELECTION

Maps & Data Contributing Factors Shark Attack Trends

What are the Odds? Reducing Your Risk

For anyone thinking of entering waters where sharks live – eg scuba divers, spear-fishers, swimmers, boaters – with relatively little experience or knowledge, these links will be incredibly useful. Local knowledge is well worth having as well. A young friend of ours, an intern on Abaco, was warned against spearfishing at a particular location: “Fish there, you’ll get ate”. He did. He very nearly was.

“Humans are not on the menu of sharks. Sharks bite humans out of curiosity or to defend themselves”

The SRI produces a downloadable Global Shark Attack File that provides:

A downloadable incident log by country
A downloadable incident log chronologically
A world map of encounters categorized by provoked vs. unprovoked, incidents involving boats, air & sea disasters and questionable incidents
To read any basic case report, open the Chronological file, click on the case number (column A) and the report will open as a pdf file

SHARK SPECIES (CONCISE OVERVIEW FOR EACH SHARK)

http://www.sharkattackfile.net/species.htm

BAHAMAS-SPECIFIC STATS

http://www.sharkattackdata.com/gsaf/place/bahamas

ABACO-SPECIFIC STATS

http://www.sharkattackdata.com/gsaf/place/bahamas/abaco_islands

Credits: All great shark photos – Melinda Riger / Grand Bahama Scuba; ‘Infest’ sticker design, Tracie Sugo

A FINAL THOUGHT

SHARKS! ALL YOU NEED (OR WANT) TO KNOW IN ONE SMALL BOOK

December 17, 2013 by Rolling Harbour

SHARKS! ALL YOU NEED (OR WANT) TO KNOW IN ONE SMALL BOOK

THE IDENTIFICATION, BEHAVIOUR & NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SHARKS OF FLORIDA, THE BAHAMAS, THE CARIBBEAN & GULF OF MEXICO

Jeremy Stafford-Deitsch, Trident Press 2000 (95 pp)

Occasionally I review books, apps, ‘meeja’ and so on, of general relevance to Abaco wildlife and ecology. You can find all this under the heading BOOKS ETC and its drop-down sub-menus. You’ll see comparative recommendations, mostly positive, with some frankly snidey comments on a few things not to waste your ‘hard-earned’ on.

Here’s a book I bought on @m@z@n for a few coins + p&p (less than $5 total) just to see what it might have to offer. The answer is, a great deal. It’s not the book for those who want a detailed exploration the intricate mesopathy of selachimorphic exo-cartilege, if such a thing exists. But it has a mass of useful information, brief but helpful identification pages for many different shark species, and good illustrations, all compressed into a slim tome.

Although this book was published in 2000, sharks haven’t changed noticeably since then, so the contents still hold good. Here are a few pages to give an idea of how simple yet informative this book is.

A tour round a shark’s ‘bits’

The Contents page gives a very clear idea of the scope of the book. Pages 34 to 54 are of particular interest for anyone intending to dive, spearfish, snorkel or indeed take a dip.

The entries for the Blacktip Shark and the Lemon Shark. Each entry features a useful range map, and an even more useful ‘potential danger rating’ for each species. It’s worth remembering, however, that there are sharks worldwide, and they all have teeth. Thousands of people dive and swim with many of the species every day in complete safety. There are simply some does and don’ts, mostly completely obvious, that will make the difference between enjoying their company (and they, yours); and pushing your luck with a wild creature when you have intruded into its habitat…

THE SHARK TRUST FEEDING CODE

This page interested me in the light of the chumming debate. Plenty of basic common sense here.

A useful illustration to help you understand what the book is all about

More shark information and some amazing images can be found HERE .

As I wrote elsewhere: “Take comfort from the fact that no fatalities and fewer than 10 injuries from shark attacks have been recorded in Abaco waters for over 250 years (since 1749)… By way of comparison, in the last 150 years there have been 36 recorded shark attacks in the Mediterranean, of which 18 have been fatal… Since 1845 there have been a number of shark attacks in British waters, with one fatality. There were two more fatalities in an incident in 1956 , but this was an ‘own-goal’ arising from an attempt to blow up a shark with dynamite. It can hardly be blamed on the shark.

WEIRD NON-SHARK RELATED STATISTIC: Amazingly, in the 3 years 2007 – 09 in England and Wales, 42 people died from being bitten by animals, only a few of which were dogs.

CONCLUSION You are statistically far safer to spend 250 years swimming off Abaco than spending 3 years stroking a cat in Manchester. Or Swansea.”

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT IT WAS SAFE… DER DE DER DE…

October 2, 2013 by Rolling Harbour

…TO GO BACK IN THE WATER… DER DE DER DE…

…along came some friendly sharks to swim with… and to photograph

There’s no escaping… the fact that there are sharks in the Bahamas

Take comfort from the fact that no fatalities and only half a dozen injuries from shark attacks have been recorded in Abaco waters for over 250 years (since 1749). Risk assessors and the nervous, take note.

By way of comparison, in the last 150 years there have been 36 recorded shark attacks in the Mediterranean, of which 18 have been fatal…

Since 1845 there have been a number of shark attacks in British waters, with one fatality. There were two more fatalities in an incident in 1956 , but this was an ‘own-goal’ arising from an attempt to blow up a shark with dynamite. It can hardly be blamed on the shark.

WEIRD NON-SHARK RELATED STATISTIC: Amazingly, in the 3 years 2007 – 09 in England and Wales, 42 people died from being bitten by animals, only a few of which were dogs.

CONCLUSION You are statistically far safer to spend 250 years swimming off Abaco than spending 3 years stroking a cat in Manchester. Or Swansea.