This US county was the world shark attack capital in 2021

The International Shark Attack File (ISAF) released its 2021 Worldwide Shark Attack Report on Monday, Jan. 24, and one county in the United States stands out as the clear world leader in shark attacks.

In Volusia County, Florida, on the Sunshine State's eastern shore, 17 shark attacks were reported, a rather mind-boggling number given that just 137 total shark attacks were reported worldwide. Such an extreme number of shark-related incidents is rare; the county averages fewer than nine violent shark encounters a year, a number that is still high but significantly lower than what was reported in 2021.

(ISAF)

According to Volusia County, millions of visitors a year flock to its beaches, including Daytona Beach, Ormond Beach and Bethune Beach.

In the ISAF report, the bites are categorized as "provoked bites" or "unprovoked bites." Of the 137 shark attacks reported, 73 were confirmed to be unprovoked.

According to the ISAF, an unprovoked shark bite is an "incident in which a bite on a live human occurs in the shark's natural habitat with no human provocation of the shark." A provoked bite is when "a human initiates interaction with a shark in some way."

The number of worldwide shark attacks increased sharply this past year compared to 2020 when 57 unprovoked shark bites occurred worldwide, but the number of bites in 2020 was unusually low due to pandemic-related restrictions, the ISAF said. The number of unprovoked bites reported in 2021 is close to the five-year average of 72 from 2016 to 2020.

Signs warning of a shark sighting are posted at Makaha Beach Park in Waianae, Hawaii, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2015. (AP Photo/Audrey McAvoy)

Florida reported 28 total shark attacks, a figure that represents 60% of the U.S. unprovoked shark bite total and 38% of unprovoked shark bites worldwide. None of the shark bites that occurred in Florida were fatal.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, most of the Florida shark attacks appear to be tied to bull sharks and blacktip sharks. Bull sharks are known to be extremely aggressive sharks, and if they get too close to shore, they are liable to attack humans. Blacktip sharks are more numerous but are significantly less aggressive, according to researchers with the ISAF.

"There's a lot of [blacktips] out there. In fact, if you're walking the beach at sunrise, there's a pretty good chance you'll see one riding in the waves," Tyler Bowling, a manager at the ISAF, told the Orlando Sentinel. "We don't have a whole lot of fatalities from sharks in Florida, and you'll never get a fatality from a blacktip."

(ISAF)

Across the United States, there were 47 unprovoked shark bites. The only fatal attack occurred in California when a surfer was bitten by what was suspected to be a great white shark, according to ABC News. Other states that had shark attacks on their beaches include Hawaii, which came in second with six attacks, South Carolina, which had four, and North Carolina and California, which both reported three attacks. Georgia had two shark attacks on its beaches, while Maryland reported a single shark attack for the year.

A majority of these attacks are tied to board sports like surfing, an activity that often catches the eyes of sharks because it makes humans look like food, such as seals or sea turtles.

"[Surfers] spend a large amount of time in the surf zone, an area commonly frequented by sharks, and may unintentionally attract sharks by splashing, paddling and 'wiping out,'" the ISAF wrote.

(solarseven/Getty Images)

With so few bites in the United States and around the world compared to the number of beachgoers, the ISAF emphasizes that the likelihood of getting bitten by a shark is extremely rare.

"Short-term trends still show both fatal and non-fatal bites to be decreasing," the report says. "The total number of unprovoked shark bites worldwide is extremely low, given the number of people participating in aquatic recreation each year."

Shark attacks are less deadly than alligator attacks, much less likely than being struck by lightning and significantly less common than fatal boating accidents. The total number of worldwide fatalities due to shark attacks in 2021 was 11, with nine of them linked to unprovoked incidents, which is slightly higher than average. Australia reported the most shark-related fatalities of any other country with three.

According to the ISAF, just five people are killed in unprovoked shark attacks each year on average around the world, with the number of shark encounters tied to variability in oceanographic and meteorological conditions, which change both the number of humans and sharks that gather in the water near the shoreline.

"While the incidence of fatal bites in 2021 was higher than is typical, we do not consider this cause for alarm," the ISAF report states. "At this time, there is no evidence that the recent spike in fatalities is linked to any natural phenomena."

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