Sponsored By:
The Barbara Delano Foundation
The Marisla Foundation
The David & Lucile Packard Foundation
The AVINA Foundation

Presented By:
WildAid
Hawaii Audubon Society
Pacific Fisheries Coalition

George H. Burgess
International Shark Attack File
American Elasmobranch Society
Florida Museum of Natural History
Gainesville, FL 32611
Email: gburgess@flmnh.ufl.edu

Although shark attack is a relatively rare phenomenon with less than 100 per year worldwide, it is highly publicized in the print and video media. While this may in part be a function of questionable journalistic values, it also is reflective of a cosmopolitan human mindset that places shark attack among the most feared natural dangers to man. In this presentation the activities of the International Shark Attack File, a compendium of scientific investigations of shark attacks, is detailed and the relative danger of shark attack discussed. Worldwide patterns of shark attack, trends in attack frequency, types of attacks, and perpetrators are identified. The geographical distribution of Pacific Ocean attacks and temporal trends in attack frequency relative to rises in human populations are examined. From both a regional and international perspective, shark attacks are rising at rates similar to human population growth. Means of minimizing the already low risk of shark attack are discussed.

Full text of paper forthcoming.