posted on Aug, 17 2010 @ 02:28 AM
reply to post by Basel77
Yep, your points are valid – I think there is a combination of things, aside from just the reporting issue.
Another side to it became more prominent in Australia last year anyway, when there was three attacks within 48 hours, after a fatal shark attack there
only a month before.
A
Time article I just looked up is a good overview – it basically says there have been 193 people killed by sharks in Australia over the past
200 years (therefore little chance of a fatality overall). But as you say, more people are entering the water as populations increase. There could
also be added pressure on overall availability of food in the ocean, though this point I'd consider secondary, as a reason, to the ones you
mention.
However many professional fishermen have a different mindset:
“…some fishermen and others complain that Australia's efforts to protect sharks — catching rare white pointer sharks is illegal, for example
— is resulting in an increase in attacks. In particular, they object to a policy of letting suspected man-eaters go. "Sharks do hang around after
the attack, and the government has a duty of care to deal with it," says Queensland fisherman Vic Hislop. Sharks "learn to kill humans. They learn
to go in hard and fast."
www.time.com...
So overall, the reasons you gave...in concert with a few other reasons…could all be combining to in fact mean there is (and will continue to be) a
rising number of shark attacks. No doubt global reporting is improving too (so yes, there is a better global overall understanding of number of
attacks) – but, reports have always been filed domestically in Australia for example (and also in US and other developed countries), yet there is
evidence pointing to a rising number of attacks irrespective of the better reporting if you take the past 20 years worth of data.
For example, one state in Australia (the most populous state, NSW) attacks quadrupled in the ten years to 2009 compared to the number of attacks in
the 90s. Every attack in the 90s would've been reported, just that I think other reasons too are responsible for this apparent increasing pattern.
Very sad for the family and friends of the victim today. As for the shark, some people will be calling for it to be hunted down, others will be saying
it is doing what comes naturally in its own habitat and should be left alone. Sad times.