We are in the midst of a shark frenzy.
In recent weeks, there has been a spate of reported attacks on both coasts of the United States. The frenzy, however, appears to be more a product of our fears than an actual uptick in the risk of shark encounters, according to a new Stanford-led study.
The study, to be published later this month in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, finds that despite increasing records of shark attacks – mostly by white sharks – in California, the individual attack risk has dropped by more than 91 percent during the past six decades. Rather than cull sharks – which research shows has no effect on the risks of an encounter – resource managers should promote safe ocean-going behavior by providing information on how risk varies among locations and times, according to the study.
