March 11, 2009 -- As the economy tanks, more people are canceling vacation plans, and that can be a bummer. But there may be an upside: fewer shark attacks.
See what it's like to swim with sharks in this video.
In 2008, there were only 59 unprovoked shark attacks worldwide, down from 71 the year before. It's too soon to know for sure what explains the trend, or even if it's a trend at all, but some scientists speculate that a slump in beach visits last year put fewer people in contact with sharks.
"There has been a huge drop in the economy, and we know there's been a big drop in tourism in places like Florida," one of the most common sites for shark attacks, said George Burgess, an ichthyologist at the University of Florida, Gainesville, and director of the International Shark Attack File.
"As Bob Dylan said, 'You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows,'" he added.
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Every year, the International Shark Attack File releases statistics about shark attack incidents, both global and local. Then, like crime-scene investigators, scientists get to work, trying to explain why each attack happened.
Sometimes explanations are obvious. El Ninos, hurricanes, and higher than normal fish runs, among other factors, can all influence how many sharks come near beaches and how many people splash in the waves.
For 2008, researchers have proposed several reasons for the lull in attacks. Overfishing, for one, has reduced shark populations to critically low numbers in many places. It's also possible that a more educated public has finally learned how to avoid getting bitten.
Overall, though, the average number of attacks has steadily grown in recent decades, a reflection of the growing human population. And even with the blip last year, there have already been more shark attacks this decade than there were in the 1990s. A similar dip in attacks happened after the events of Sept. 11, 2001.
All of that points to the recession as the best explanation for the latest statistics, said John Musick, a marine ecologist at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science in Gloucester Point.
No matter what the cause, shark attacks remain quite rare, with an average of just five deaths each year. Most bites are mistakes from confused sharks, Musick said. Most victims are surfers (who tend to hit the water regardless of what the economy is doing).
And even though attacks on humans get lots of flashy press, people are less likely to hear about the tens of millions of sharks, skates, and rays that get caught in fishing nets each year.
"The big problem is not sharks eating people," Musick said. "It's people eating sharks."
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