Are sharks getting hungrier for people? Specialists reveal whether or not you ought to be additional cautious within the water this summer season

Holidaymakers could also be additional cautious this summer season following a spate of excessive profile shark assaults, together with the loss of life of a younger Russian man final month. 

The 23-year-old, Yury Popov, was mauled to death by a ‘meat grinder’ tiger shark on the Egyptian resort of Hurghada on June 9 whereas his father tragically regarded on. 

Earlier within the 12 months, one other man was decapitated by a great white shark close to San Jose Seashore in Tobari Bay on the western coast of Mexico. 

However are sharks actually getting hungrier for people? 

MailOnline spoke to the scientists to search out out, following the collection of deadly assaults which have hit the headlines. 

Surprisingly, they are saying that the development for shark assaults just isn’t going up or down, and that the variety of incidents is definitely on monitor to be per earlier years. 

A spate of latest shark assaults have made the headlines in latest months, however are they rising globally? MailOnline spoke to the specialists 

Professor Gavin Naylor, evolutionary biologist on the College of Florida, stated that shark assaults aren’t on the rise, at the very least not within the brief time period. 

‘The development for shark assaults just isn’t going up and up, or down,’ he stated in a brand new BBC documentary ‘Why Sharks Attack‘. 

‘In truth it is considerably stunning to me as a scientist how constant they’ve been over time. 

‘We typically get between 80 and 110 – 110 is a nasty 12 months and 80 is an efficient 12 months.’ 

So what number of have there been this 12 months? 

As of July 17, there have been 38 ‘unprovoked’ shark assaults worldwide in 2023, together with seven which have been deadly, in keeping with trackingsharks.com. 

For comparability, there wre 57 unprovoked assaults in 2022, together with 5 that proved deadly, in keeping with the latest annual report from Florida Museum of Pure Historical past’s Worldwide Shark Assault File (ISAF). 

The variety of provoked and unprovoked world assaults mixed for final 12 months, in the meantime, is 79. 

Since 2013, there was a median of 74 unprovoked bites per 12 months, though 2020 introduced the typical down because of the Covid lockdowns.

Paul Cox, managing director of UK organisation Shark Belief, stated shark assault numbers are at present ‘pretty regular total with some years higher than others’. 

Terrifying: An enormous nice white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) in ocean water (file photograph)

‘Information means that 2022 confirmed a decline on the 5 12 months common in unprovoked shark bites globally however with some notable hotspots,’ Cox informed MailOnline. 

Specialists – together with Cox, Professor Naylor and the World Wildlife Fund – are in settlement that shark populations world wide are in decline total. 

However out of the 1,200 several types of sharks and rays globally, only some species are vulnerable to attacking people, together with the Oceanic white tip and the nice white. 

‘A latest evaluation classed a 3rd of species as threatened,’ Cox informed MailOnline. 

‘However only some species are prone to encounter people, a lot much less strategy them. 

‘So evaluating world shark numbers with chunk incidents is a bit like evaluating apples and Bentley’s.’ 

Wanting on the image long term, the variety of reported unprovoked shark assaults have elevated globally since 1960, Florida Museum stats present. 

There appears to be a spike beginning within the late Eighties – in different phrases within the final 35 years or so there have been considerably extra assaults in contrast with 1960-1990. 

So why the long-term improve? 

Unprovoked shark assaults have elevated globally since 1960, Florida Museum stats present

A 23-year-old Russian man was mauled to loss of life in June by a tiger shark on the Egyptian resort of Hurghada. Pictured, a tiger shark (file photograph)

Cox stated there could possibly be elevated ‘contact alternatives’ by way of rising human inhabitants and adjustments in behaviour. 

It is also price allowing for that databases recording numbers of shark assaults depend on experiences, and these have been probably much less commonplace than they’re now. 

‘A larger give attention to reporting and analysis may clarify the rise in reported incidents within the interval from 1960-1990,’ Cox stated. 

One more reason for considerably of a lull in shark assaults within the Nineteen Seventies and Eighties could possibly be what’s generally known as the ‘Jaws impact’ in reference to the 1975 movie. 

The time period was coined by Christopher Neff, a public coverage professor on the College of Sydney. 

It is thought individuals turned extra conscious of the hazards of the water because of the movie, however for the reason that Nineties assault figures have shot again up. 

‘The socio-psychological saturation of the movie as each a summer season blockbuster and a psychological meme is widespread,’ stated Neff in a 2015 study. 

‘Importantly, many fashionable representations of sharks mirror components from Jaws in ways in which counsel people are on the menu.’

Professor Naylor stated it’s ‘not true’ that sharks are transferring in the direction of the coast extra, so this isn’t an element that ought to be affecting shark assault numbers. 

‘They’ve at all times been in comparatively shallow water,’ he informed MailOnline. ‘This could not stunning as a result of people not often enterprise far off shore.’ 

Russian Vladimir Popov, 23, named as sufferer of the shark assault in Hurghada, Egypt final month

Pictured, location of recorded unprovoked shark assaults going again to 1900, in keeping with Florida Museum of Pure Historical past’s Worldwide Shark Assault File (ISAF)

Professor Naylor additionally stated we are not any much less protected getting within the water this summer season than we was. 

Shark assaults are very uncommon – you are extra prone to be struck by lightning – however most of them occur within the US, particularly in waters surrounding the state of Florida.

For many years, Florida has topped world charts within the variety of shark bites, in keeping with the ISAF, together with in 2022. 

After the US, Australia is subsequent on the record of most unprovoked assaults, adopted by Egypt and South Africa, the information for final 12 months reveals.