Aussies Fear More Shark Attacks
Has overfishing off the coast of Australia led to an increase in shark attacks? Many experts scoff at the claim, but three attacks in 24 hours have fueled the debate, according to AFP.
Two surfers were attacked on Sunday, one near Sydney and the other in Tasmania. The following day a snorkler lost his leg to a shark. These gruesome accounts and numerous scares have people conjuring images of Steven Spielberg’s 1975 film “Jaws,” with local media printing heads like “Escape from the jaws of a killer,” a story in which a 13-year-old girl was rescued from the grasp of a great white shark.
Yet, John West, curator of the official Australian shark Attack File held at Sydney’s Taronga Zoo, dismisses the idea of escalating shark attacks. “The human population is increasing and more and more people are going into the water, but there has not been a corresponding spike in fatalities from shark attacks,” West told AFP. “There is still an average of 1.2 fatalities a year over about the past 50 years – if anything, the fatality rate for shark attacks is dropping in comparison to the increase in the human population.”
--Ivan Miller
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