As a race we like to try to save species that are on the brink or extinction. Sharks have in recent times been added to that list. Part of the initiative to make people want to save the shark was to make them seem less like a row of teeth with an attitude problem. So the organisations trying to protect the shark turned to statistics.
Statistics will tell you that more people die every year from falling coconuts and bee stings than from shark attacks.
A year ago I was in Australia and got talking to a few shark experts, all doctors and professors who's research concerned sharks. They said that the stats are very misleading because a shark attack only gets noted down if it can be proven. They told me that hundreds of people on the missing persons register and ones that disappear in the sea (and proclaimed drowned) were probably killed by sharks. They gave an example of a man (a strong swimmer) who went swimming one evening and never came back, he vanished off the face of the earth and
Sharks are much more dangerous than coconuts!?
The argument is without merit. The two professors do not have the sum total of that knowledge, sharks-v-coconuts, they are shark experts, not falling objects experts.
Ok, so one man, MAYBE, got attacked by a shark and died as a result.
That does not change the statistics.
Six Billion peoples on the Earth now, 12 billion in 10 years, that is just that many more swimmers in the water that is a fishes source of food and life.
From 1900 to 2005 there were 130 authenticated unprovoked shark attacks reported from the Pacific Coast of North America. The breakdown by state is; Washington 1, Oregon 17, and California 112. There have been 111 shark attacks reported from California between 1950 and 2005, with *10 fatal. The White Shark, Carcharodon carcharias, was either positively identified or highly suspect in all 10 fatalities. Of the 111 reported attacks from California in the last 55 years, the White Shark was implicated in 99.
http://www.sharkresearchcommittee.com/fa...
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/Whi...
California 70 7 2004
Oregon 17 0
New Jersey 5 2 1916
Massachusetts 1 1 1936
North Carolina 1 1 1957
Hawaii 1 0
South Carolina 1 0
Washington 1 0
United States 97 11 2004
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/Whi...
http://gerber.iwarp.com/Attack/statsw.ht...
EAR Total Attacks Fatal Non-fatal YEAR Total Attacks Fatal Non-fatal
1990 37 2 35 1990 10 0 10
1991 38 3 35 1991 13 0 13
1992 55 7 48 1992 12 0 12
1993 55 14 41 1993 10 0 10
1994 62 9 53 1994 24 0 24
1995 74 11 63 1995 31 0 31
1996 43 3 40 1996 13 0 13
1997 60 12 48 1997 26 0 26
1998 54 6 48 1998 22 1 21
1999 58 4 54 1999 25 0 25
AUSTRALIA
(N=53) BRAZIL
(N=50)
YEAR Total Attacks Fatal Non-fatal YEAR Total Attacks Fatal Non-fatal
1990 6 1 5 1990 2 1 1
1991 7 1 6 1991 0 0 0
1992 4 1 3 1992 7 1 6
1993 5 3 2 1993 5 1 4
1994 3 0 3 1994 15 3 12
1995 9 1 8 1995 6 2 4
1996 7 0 7 1996 2 0 2
1997 9 0 9 1997 5 2 3
1998 1 1 0 1998 4 2 2
1999 2 1 1 1999 4 0 4
SOUTH AFRICA
(N=65) HAWAII
(N=33)
YEAR Total Attacks Fatal Non-fatal YEAR Total Attacks Fatal Non-fatal
1990 4 1 3 1990 2 0 2
1991 3 0 3 1991 4 1 3
1992 3 0 3 1992 8 1 7
1993 6 0 6 1993 4 0 4
1994 9 1 8 1994 3 0 3
1995 5 1 4 1995 2 0 2
1996 4 0 4 1996 2 0 2
1997 4 2 2 1997 2 0 2
1998 18 1 17 1998 1 0 1
1999 9 2 7 1999 5 0 5
CALIFORNIA
(N=30) REUNION ISLAND
(N=10)
YEAR Total Attacks Fatal Non-fatal YEAR Total Attacks Fatal Non-fatal
1990 5 0 5 1990 1 0 1
1991 4 0 4 1991 1 0 1
1992 2 0 2 1992 3 2 1
1993 5 0 5 1993 0 0 0
1994 3 2 1 1994 1 1 0
1995 4 0 4 1995 2 2 0
1996 3 0 3 1996 1 1 0
1997 1 0 1 1997 1 1 0
1998 1 0 1 1998 0 0 0
1999 2 0 2 1999 0 0 0
NEW ZEALAND
(N=17) JAPAN
(N=9)
YEAR Total Attacks Fatal Non-fatal YEAR Total Attacks Fatal Non-fatal
1990 3 0 3 1990 0 0 0
1991 1 0 1 1991 0 0 0
1992 3 0 3 1992 3 1 2
1993 1 0 1 1993 1 0 1
1994 0 0 0 1994 1 0 1
1995 1 0 1 1995 1 1 0
1996 5 0 5 1996 1 1 0
1997 0 0 0 1997 2 2 0
1998 0 0 0 1998 0 0 0
1999 3 0 3 1999 0 0 0
HONG KONG
(N=6) OTHER REGIONS
(N=86)
YEAR Total Attacks Fatal Non-fatal YEAR Total Attacks Fatal Non-fatal
1990 0 0 0 1990 8 0 8
1991 1 1 0 1991 6 0 6
1992 0 0 0 1992 8 1 7
1993 2 2 0 1993 17 8 9
1994 0 0 0 1994 6 1 5
1995 3 3 0 1995 14 1 13
1996 0 0 0 1996 7 0 7
1997 0 0 0 1997 13 5 8
1998 0 0 0 1998 4 1 3
1999 0 0 0 1999 3 1 2
Last updated 31 March 2000
http://gerber.iwarp.com/Attack/statsw.ht...
By those numbers, a car or vehicle is MUCH more deadly than a shark, fact:
Some 43,443 people were killed on the highways last year, up 1.4 percent from 42,836 in 2004, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Tuesday. It was the highest number in a single year since 1990, when 44,599 people were killed.
The fatality rate grew slightly to 1.47 deaths per 100 million miles traveled, an increase from 1.45 in 2004. That was the first increase since 1986.
Said Acting Transportation Secretary Maria Cino: "Motorcyclists need to wear their helmets, drivers need to buckle up, and all motorists need to stay sober."
Fifty-five percent of the passenger vehicle occupants killed were not wearing seat belts.
Though deaths were up, the number of people injured in crashes declined 3.2 percent, from 2.8 million in 2004 to 2.7 million in 2005.
That is 2.8 MILLION in cars, 198 by Sharks.
Now coconutz:
OK, getting hit by a coconut is no laughing matter. But nowhere does Barss say that 150 people get killed by coconuts each year. He provides an anecdotal account of one such death and in a separate paper estimates that over a four-year period five deaths in his hospital's service area were related to coconut palm trees (including climbers falling out of them). A recent report (Mulford et al, "Coconut Palm-Related Injuries in the Pacific Islands," ANZ Journal of Surgery, January 2001), which describes itself as "the largest review of coconut-palm related injuries," also reports no deaths and on the question of mortality merely cites Barss. Given that Barss' hospital in Papua New Guinea served a population of 130,000, one conceivably could project 150 deaths over that portion of the world population living in proximity to coconut palm trees, but I'm not aware of any systematic attempt to do so. Noting that death reports in tropical countries are limited, Barss tells me, "I am surprised that someone has come up with an actual number for such injuries. It must be a crude estimate, and you would have to ask them what methodology they used to verify whether it has any validity." Conclusion: Somebody pulled the figure about 150 deaths due to coconuts out of thin air. Take that, shark lovers.
Facts and figures once toggled into an Actuary Table can produce just about any desired result.
I have lived on the coast for 46 years, I have seen more people killed by snakes, skates, stupity, and sun poisoning, I have seen one man get bit by a shark.
Now Cudas are a menace, to divers that have shiny knives and junk that is more to impress than to serve a function.
I don't care how strong a swimmer is, one school of Polynesian Man o Wars can incapacitate and kill almost as fast as neck injury from getting beached on a bad wave.
Second point, and a very strong one, it was proposed to kill off the skeeters in FL. Then it was looked at, kill all the skeeters and then certain pollination stuff doesnt occir, crops die, people starve.
Settle down and be happy with the tine that you have.
Reply:The statistics are true, it's just the interpretation! A shark is obviously more dangerous than a coconut. But in terms of a threat to humans generally, sharks don't rate very highly!
Reply:at least coconuts don't eat us!!!!!!!!!
Reply:The statistics on coconuts are also very misleading. How many deaths recorded as "natural causes" are actually down to midnight visits by the coconut extermination squad?
Reply:There are over 450 different species of sharks, with about 30 species ever having been reported to have attacked humans and of those about 12 being considered particularly dangerous when encountered.
There are many mammals, fish, insects and even plants which are dangerous to humans.
We are custodians of the planet and should try to protect all endangered species of fish, wildlife, and plants they are of aesthetic, ecological, educational, historical, recreational, and scientific value.
No creature exists in a vacuum. All living things are part of a complex, delicately balanced network called the biosphere. The earth's biosphere is composed of ecosystems, which include plants and animals and their physical environment. The removal of a single species within an ecosystem can set off a chain reaction affecting many other species.
It has been estimated, for example, that a disappearing plant can take with it up to 30 other species, including insects, higher animals, and even other plants. The full significance of an extinction is not always readily apparent; much remains to be learned, and the full long-term impacts are difficult to predict.
Reply:I do NOT believe your comments that you say are from "experts" and professors. I know many such people. These people deal with facts and rarely if ever make speculative assumptions based on hear say.
The facts are very few people die from shark attacks. The facts are human is NOT on shark menu. The facts are very few species of shark can kill or eat a human.
Proof of a shark attack is obvious. Nothing else leaves a bite like a shark. If the person reports it, then the report will go in the data base. Yes, there are people that disappear while at sea. It is speculation, as to the cause of death, without a known cause of death. Hear say is NOT evidence.
Reply:You raise some interesting points, but I tend to agree with the last couple posters. Incidentally, 'probability' is not 'certainty' and there are lots of things that could disable or kill even a strong and experienced swimmer (muscle cramps or currents included). Speculation simply is no substitute for facts when you're making decisions, especially policy decisions.
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