Recently, an American tourist died in a tragic shark attack off the coast of Costa Rica. A fatal incident that is extremely rare.
The Costa Rican newspaper La Nación reports that the 49-year-old woman was attacked by a tiger shark while diving off Cocos Island. The forested volcanic island is part of the UNESCO World Natural Heritage. Her 26-year-old dive guide was also injured.
Tiger sharks had been absent from the waters around the island for 30 years, but in 2012 they returned, as La Nación reported at the time.
Sharks rarely attack humans
Even though the accident may evoke associations with "Jaws" for some, sharks normally do not attack humans and avoid them whenever possible. Unprovoked attacks are extremely unusual. If the animal in this case had indeed not been provoked beforehand, it would be the fifth confirmed attack in Costa Rica since 1580. These data come from the International Shark Attack File, an international database of shark attacks, maintained by the Florida Museum of Natural History.
“Sharks are not a threat, and it is essential to change our behavior and our perception of sharks as symbols of terror,” says a group of Costa Rican biologists in a statement following the attack.
The actual danger is vanishingly small
It is similar in other parts of the world: the risk of being injured or killed by a shark is vanishingly small. You are 75 times more likely to be killed by lightning than by sharks, and seawater is 132 times more dangerous (due to drowning) than the sharks swimming in it.
In addition, any potential increase in shark attacks is usually linked to human behavior. “The world population continues to grow rapidly, and interest in recreation in marine areas is rising. We should expect the number of shark attacks and other accidents in these regions to increase,” explains the International Shark Attack File in its report on shark attacks in 2016.
Sharks have more reason to fear
In fact, sharks have more reason to fear humans than the other way around. Researchers estimated in 2013 that around 100 million sharks are killed worldwide each year. This corresponds to an annual mortality rate of 6.4 to 7.9 percent, which biologists consider unsustainable.
“The number of sharks caught fluctuates from year to year, and given the biology of the species, the number is many times too high,” says Boris Worm, a biologist at Dalhousie University and currently lead scientist of the study.
