these statistical comparison are all meaningless because they never take into account the number of people exposed to a particular risk. sure more people die of lightning strikes than shark attacks. so what? almost every region in the world and, therefore, almost every human is exposed to lightning. how many get even near sharky waters? also the coconut statistic sounds great at first (150 dead vs some 70 from shark attacks). that sounds like a shark attack would be unblievably remote because after all what is our chance of having a coconut fall on our head? however, when you live in koh tau that's a different story. coconuts are the second leading cause of death among younger people (moped accidents are in the top spot). therefore, for someone from koh tau reading these numbers a shark attack would not seem such a small risk (about half as likely as death by coconut).
in the end, however, with or without statistical mumbo jumbo the fact remains that shark attacks on divers are extremely rare (especially when you are not spearfishing) and nothing to be concerned of. there are much greater risks that divers face without ever worrying about them.
