![]() ![]() Sharks continue to make headlines this summer, with reports of at least four people bitten off Long Island in New York in two days around the Fourth of July holiday, none of them fatally. “Unfortunately in this situation, the media is at fault,” she says. Provoked bites are considered those that occur while unhooking a shark from a line, feeding or trying to touch a shark and spear fishing.ĭespite these statistics, sharks’ image as a fearsome, stealthy predator persists in the collective imagination and is reflected in heart-pounding titles of this year’s Shark Week lineup, such as “Serial Killer: Red Sea Attacks” and “Jaws in the Shallows.”Ī 2021 content analysis of more than 250 episodes of Discovery Channel’s Shark Week-which this year begins Sunday, July 23-found many shows were framed around fear, risk and adrenaline, although 53% also included conservation messages, Mello says. The ISAF also reported 32 provoked shark bites last year. and Australia, from the average 74 unprovoked bites a year since 2013. Unprovoked bites also declined to 57 in 2022, most of which occurred in the U.S. The number of worldwide shark fatalities actually represented a decline from nine in 2021 and 10 in 2020, according to the ISAF. Lifetime risk is calculated by dividing the 2021 population (331,893,745) by the number of deaths, divided by 76.6, the life expectancy of a person born in 2021. Shark fatality data provided by the International Shark Attack File. Disease death information from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sources: All accidental death information from National Safety Council. Illustration by Zach Christensen/Northeastern University ![]() deaths by lightning strike reported by the National Weather Service. The University of Florida, which maintains an International Shark Attack File, says that in 2022, five people were killed in unprovoked shark attacks worldwide, including one fatality in the U.S., a figure that pales in comparison to 19 U.S. Media depictions of sharks focus on their potential lethality when shark fatalities in the U.S. Susan Mello, associate professor of communications studies at Northeastern University, calls it the “Jaws Effect.” The Discovery Channel’s now iconic “Shark Week” is upon us, and so is the perception that sharks are responsible for a lot more carnage than statistics bear out. ![]()
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