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In Australia, the number of fatal shark attacks has risen sharply this year. Eight people did not survive attacks by predatory fish, both on the western and eastern coasts of the country.
“We haven’t seen so many fatal shark bites in Australia since 1934,” said shark expert Phoebe Meagher of the Taronga Zoo in Sydney from the German press agency. Over the past five decades, there has been an average of only one fatal attack per year on the fifth continent; in 2019, none at all.
More attacks were fatal
However, experts say there is no need to panic over Australia’s swimmers and surfers. Because when it comes to the number of unprovoked attacks, 2020 was more of an average year, according to Meagher. In the last decade, the annual number has always been in the range between 15 and 25, in 2020 it was 20. However, more attacks ended fatally.
Many injured people have simply been lucky in recent years because they were able to be treated quickly and thus survived, said Culum Brown, a marine biologist at Macquarie University in Sydney. “There are really only two factors that are important when a shark bites you: where it bites you and how quickly you can get help.” This year there was a lot of bad luck on both points.
“He is much more likely to drown”
Sharks are not monsters, although they are often portrayed that way, Meagher says. In reality, people are not on their menu. Although there are thousands of them below, there are few incidents.
And: “You are much more likely to drown on our beaches than to die from a shark,” he says. (SDA / bra)
