Shark Attacks Rise Worldwide But Drop In the U.S.

MIAMI, March 1, 2010 -- The not-so-good news for swimmers: shark attacks worldwide rose marginally in 2009. But the brighter news for those splashing into American waters is that attacks off U.S. shores plummeted more than 30 percent.

In 2009, there were 61 total shark attacks worldwide, five of them fatal. That's up slightly from 60 attacks and four deaths in 2008.

"The big story is that the number of attacks in the United States dropped dramatically from 41 in 2008 to 28 in 2009," he said George Burgess Director of the University of Florida Program for Shark Research and the annual report's author.

More than half the attacks involved surfers, though the majority are relatively minor and the overall chances of being killed by a shark attack are "infinitesimal," according to Burgess. In fact, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a person is nearly 20 times more likely to be killed by lightning.

More easily quantifiable, is the most dangerous place to swim. Florida's Volusia county, with eight shark attacks in 2009. Volusia's strip of coastline was the site of 13 percent of all the shark attacks last year, reinforcing its dubious title of shark-bite capital of the world.

But the deadliest place to surf or swim was South Africa's coast, where white sharks congregate in cooler waters and surfers go to hunt big waves. According to the Shark Attack Report, the six attacks off the roughly 1,500 miles of South African coastline last year included four of the five fatalities worldwide.

Volusia County, by contrast, saw no fatalities resulting from its eight attacks.

While shark attacks have risen steadily over the past century -- in lockstep with world's population growth, Burgess noted -- the fatality rate has steadily declined, from about 60 percent at the turn of the 20th century to about 7 percent today.

Burgess credits vastly improved trauma care, the increasing professionalism of lifeguards and greater public awareness, for the change.