Shark bite risk

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jbd

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Not sure of the accuracy of this but I just heard, on a plug for shark week programing, that there is one chance in 80,000,000 that a person will be bitten by a shark.
 
jbd once bubbled...
Not sure of the accuracy of this but I just heard, on a plug for shark week programing, that there is one chance in 80,000,000 that a person will be bitten by a shark.

I guess you have to look at what the 80 000 000 represents: people who enter the water, or the world population as a whole?

If the stats include those that hate water and live in Arizona/Central Africa/Canadian Prairies, IMHO, the numbers are not very realistic nor reprentative of the risks that I take should I decide to go on a surfing trip in the San Francisco bay area.
 
Kaos once bubbled...
...IMHO, the numbers are not very realistic nor reprentative of the risks that I take should I decide to go on a surfing trip in the San Francisco bay area.
Yeah, better make it 1 in 80 :D
 
Scubaroo once bubbled...
Yeah, better make it 1 in 80 :D

That bad? I'll stick to checking out the cable cars, Haight-Ashbury, the Golden Gate and Alcatraz then.

What about if I go to a hockey game, any chances of a Shark attack there :)
 
I posted this elsewhere, but it fits here, as well...

According to RAW DATA, Playboy, August 2002

'Number of people attacked worldwide by sharks in 2000: 79. Number who died: 10. Number killed annually by falling coconuts: 150.'

Notice that's not number of divers, but number of people, the majority seem to be surfers.

Geeez, get me off this beach and into the shark infested ocean, where I'm safe!
 
Just went swimming with about 10 reef sharks last week...did it on three different dives.

Made it back intact.

I think I will gamble on the lottery before I do on a shark attack.
 
The facts for 2002 are available at: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Sharks/Statistics/2002attacksummary.htm

Of all the shark attacks reported last year, if memory serves me right from the DAN or maybe SCUBA magazine article, only 2 involved SCUBA divers. One was an employee at one of these dive with the sharks operations whos job was to feed the sharks by hand under water while the other divers sat in a big circle around him. The held out his hand with food in it for a shark and, well, ..... as the countyr western song goes: HERES YOUR SIGN. The other incident was a spear fisherman whos leg got between the shark and the large fish he had just speared.

In short, more people are killed every year by falling coconuts or bee stings than by sharks. Dont worry about them. The majority of the time, they leave you alone, if you are not doing anything stupid.
 
What about a female diver who just happens to be going through her 'time of the month' while on a dive unprotected in an area where sharks are known to frequent.

That's not cream in my coffee.
 
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