May 13 2008
Shark Attack Risk of Death…
With all the recent shark attacks and hysteria surrounding them in the media, I decided to look up some statistics on shark attacks and death. The International Shark Attack File has tons of good information and statistics on shark attacks. This page compares the risk of death of shark attacks to everything from an alligator attacks to a “collapsing sand hole incident.” And according to their graph below what you’ve heard is true, you’re far more likely to die from a lightning strike or fireworks than from a shark attack (let alone heart disease, car accident, or multiple drug-resistant bacteria). So buckle up, wear a helmet, watch out for collapsing sand hole, and surf your brains out.
Check our post on annual number of shark attack and deaths (here).
You know I read all these statistics about how surfing is safer that blowing off fireworks in a lightning storm while driving, but there is a nagging con here. It seems to use the overall population as the divisor. What are the odds of you happen to be a person who surfs the West Coast?
What are the odds if you are planning a surf trip to Guerrero?
Chris
Addendum to up above: the way I see it, three people were chomped in Guerrero in a month. There are possibly 150 people in the water up and the coast on any given day. Therefore the odds of getting bit are 150 x 30/3 or 1 in 1500. That makes it 2,498 times more likely that you will get eaten in Gurerro than the odds above. However, I am planning a month trip to Guerro and expect I will be in the water for 30 days. That would seem to make my odds 1 in 50, or slightly better than death by hostpital infection. Hmm. At least the waves will be less crowded - with surfers.
Chris, interestingly enough I just email George Burgess who’s the head scientist at the International Shark Attack File (where I got the number and charts from) and asked him how being a surfer affects the shark attack statistics. He actually did a study and crunched the numbers on beach goers (http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/statistics/beachattacks.htm)
and found similar risk of death (actually risk of death in this case was 0).
As for Guerrero, the numbers down there aren’t good. You should consider heading up to Michoacan. We scored great waves up there. If you stay in Guerrero, you’ll probably have the Ranch and Saladita to yourself.
[…] hype, shark attacks and related fataties are still excedingly rare. Check out our post on your chances on dying from a shark attack in relation to other causes of death. Point is, you’re still more likely to die of a […]
[…] Smyra Beach in 2008 alone is 1/3 of the global attacks of 2007! I posted earlier on statistics of the risk of death from a shark attack (pretty much nill), but I wouldn’t discount a risk of an attack in New […]
i was eaten by a shark and pooed out
DANG!!!! only 1 in 3,748,067 people die from shark attack!!!