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Shark attacks continue to fall
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Last year was the fifth in a row in which the global record of shark attacks on humans has fallen, says an international shark research group.
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The International Shark Attack File, run by the American Elasmobranch Society and the Florida Museum of Natural History, has reported that recorded attacks for 2005 numbered 58, compared with 65 attacks for 2004. There were only four fatal attacks in 2005, the same as for 2004.
The latest figures continue a trend in reduced numbers of attacks since 2000, when a record 78 were recorded, 11 fatal. But even at that level, the chances of being attacked by a shark are minute, considering the millions of times a human enters the sea each year as a wader, swimmer, snorkeller, surfer or diver.
File director George Burgess has said that the reducing numbers of attacks could be a reflection of declines in shark populations due to fishing. But he added that it could also be because humans are becoming more savvy about avoiding the types of locations where the risks of attack by sharks rise.
In 2005 the highest number of attacks was on surfers, at 29. Next came swimmers, snorkellers and waders together, at 20. Attacks on scuba divers numbered four. The fatal attacks were two in Australia, one in the USA and one off Vanuatu in the Pacific.
The USA saw the most attacks, at 38. Eighteen of these occurred in Florida, which has a history of conflict between diving shark-feeders, sport-fishermen and beach-users. There were 10 attacks off Australia, four off South Africa and one each in the Bahamas, St Martin (Caribbean), Mexico, Fiji, Vanuatu and South Korea.
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