FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida again led the United States in shark attacks last year, with 28 incidents and no fatalities, according to a report released Wednesday by the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida.
The vast majority of the Florida incidents were minor ones, in which a shark quickly bites an arm or leg in poor visibility water, releasing it as soon as the shark realizes its prey isn’t a fish.
“Most of them are better called bites than attacks,” said George Burgess, curator of the International Shark Attack File. “They’re the equivalent of dog bites.”
Florida’s place at the top of the shark-bite chart owes more to geography and tourism than any particularly fondness of sharks for biting people off its shores. The state has the largest coastline in the United States after Alaska, where swimming in the ocean is not particularly popular, and attracts millions of tourists who splash in its coastal waters.
The largest number of attacks took place in Volusia County, with 10 incidents, and Brevard, with eight. There were two in Broward County, two in Palm Beach County and none in Miami-Dade County.
In the Broward incidents, a man was bitten on the foot in waist-deep water off Hallandale Beach and a woman suffered a severe bite on her right leg while lying on an inner tube in the Intracoastal Waterway in Fort Lauderdale. In the Palm Beach County attacks, a man lying on a kite board was bitten on the arm and a boy on a surfboard was bitten on the foot and ankle off North Palm Beach.
Despite having higher populations, South Florida counties typically see far fewer attacks than the Volusia area because they have far fewer surfers, Burgess said. Surfing tends to produce more bites because the surfer is often splashing, reducing visibility in the water and making it more likely a shark will mistake a hand or foot for a fish.
“There’s lots of splashing and kicking, and it’s done in an environment where visibility is poor,” he said. “What you have is increased chance of mistaken identity because of poor visibility.”
In 2013, Florida saw 23 attacks; in 2012 there were 27. The rare fatal attacks in Florida typically involve bull or tiger sharks, Burgess said. Great whites — which account for fatal attacks off Australia, the Pacific coast of North America and South Africa — are rare in Florida waters, he said.
The number of fatal attacks worldwide dropped to three, far below the average of 6.3 per year. Two of the fatal attacks took place in Australia and one in South Africa.
Burgess attributed the decline in fatalities to luck, increased awareness and improved trauma care. Swimmers are learning to avoid areas that attract large sharks and to avoid swimming at night or near inlets, he said.
There were 72 attacks worldwide last year, down from 75 the previous year. Burgess said he expects the general trend to be upward, however, since the human population is growing along with the popularity of water sports, which will bring more people into the sharks’ habitat.
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