Razzonater said..
The only thing I agree with on the link with is the actual timeline of events; the csiro bases statistics on global population levels, there is a billion people in china who dont surf dive etc. When you reference the actual victims of the attacks their personal chances have gone up a squillion percent. Take for instance a local who surfs south point...
I know exactly what you mean; if I don't go to the beach then the chances of dying from a bee sting being higher than being bitten by a shark are irrelevant to me. So what difference does the population of China make?!
In reality my being in the water more than the average person skews my chances dramatically. The report takes this into account. It is saying that there are
both more people and more people doing water-based activities. And on top of that they are doing it more of the time.
You can't ignore the fact that there really are more surfers, scuba divers, SUPs , bodyboarders, kitesurfers etc. etc. in the water. The breaks are
crowded. It onlyu stands to reason that there are simply more people having more contact with sharks than before.
The CSIRO said...
Changes in the popularity of water-based activities over the past four decades was reflected in the activities of the victims. For example, there has been a 310% increase in attacks on surfers since 1999. There have also been substantial increases in the attacks on swimmers, SCUBA divers and sailboarders.
There are still more factors to consider, for example:
The CSIRO said...
Historically (pre-1950s), human–shark interactions predominantly occurred in the summer months. In recent decades, swimmers, surfers and divers are continuing to pursue these activities outside of the traditional summer season because of improvements in wetsuit technology. This is reflected in the occurrence of shark attacks throughout the year since the 1950s; particularly for surfers, snorkelers and SCUBA divers who can enter the water at any time of the year and extend the time they spend in the water in areas that, in earlier decades, were likely to be too cold for recreational purposes. In the past 20 years, 49% of all shark-attack victims were wearing a wetsuit. These data support a similar account by Cliff (1991) regarding the effect of wetsuits on shark-attack increases in South Africa.
It's pretty thorough and I suggest you read it in its entirety. Don't just read the abstract and assume how they came to a conclusion.
Doing that is not dissimilar to projecting the behaviour of dogs onto sharks.
