The Tracking Sharks portal has published a list of shark attack victims around the world.
According to the portal, in 2023, 84 people suffered from shark attacks, and 18 cases of attacks were fatal, some of the victims were completely eaten. This number of deaths writes Tracking Sharks, has not happened for 20 years:
January 5: Manuel Lopez (53 years old). A six-metre white shark bit off his head while he was diving for shellfish off the coast of Sonora in Mexico.
February 4: Stella Berry (16) is killed by a bonehead shark while swimming in the Swan River in Perth, Australia.
February 18: Diego Baria (32 years old). Fishermen found the remains of a man in the stomach of a shark caught off the coast of Australia.
February 19: Chris Davis (59 years old). While swimming off the coast of New Caledonia, a man was attacked by a tiger shark. He died from numerous wounds.
May 9: Alejandro Jimenez (17 years old). Died after being attacked by a blunt-nosed shark off the northern coast of Cuba.
May 13: Simon Bacanello (46 years old). While surfing off the coast of Australia, he was dragged away by a great white shark. The man’s body was never found.
June 4: An unidentified man is killed by a shark while spearfishing in New Caledonia.
June 8: Vladimir Popov (23 years old). Partially eaten by a tiger shark while swimming in the Red Sea near Hurghada in Egypt. The tragedy occurred in front of his father.
August 12: Fisherman Amoni Maleulu (41 years old). Fell victim to a shark while trying to pull a whale carcass ashore off the coast of Samoa.
October 1: Felix Louis Njai (52 years old). Was eaten by a great white shark while swimming at Wildcat Beach in Point Reyes, California.
October 31: Todd Gendle (55). Eaten by a great white shark while surfing at Streaky Bay in South Australia. A witness said the shark was as long as a limousine.
November 21: A German diver (47 years old) was attacked by a tiger shark at Tiger Beach in the Bahamas.
December 2: Maria Jimenez (26 years old). A shark bit off her leg on a beach in Melaka, Mexico. The woman managed to save her five-year-old daughter by throwing her onto the platform. The vacationers pulled Maria ashore, but she died from heavy blood loss.
December 4: Lauren Erickson van Wart (44). The day after the wedding, the woman and her husband went surfing in the Bahamas. She was attacked by a tiger shark. Lauren could not be saved.
December 14: Canadian tourist Joseph Beynens, 76, is attacked by a shark in Playa Quieta on the Pacific coast of Mexico and dies from his injuries.
December 28: Talented surfer Khai Cawley (15) was killed. The teenager went with his father to Ethel Beach on the south coast of Australia, where they wanted to ride the waves. As soon as Khai entered the sea, a great white shark attacked him and bit off his leg. Rescuers tried to revive him, but his injuries were too severe.
December 29: Victor Alejandro (20 years old). A man’s leg was bitten off by a great white shark while he was diving for crayfish off the coast of Sonora, Mexico. The injury turned out to be fatal.
December 30: Jason Carter (39 years old). A man was attacked by a tiger shark while surfing off the Hawaiian island of Maui. Rescuers managed to pull him out of the water, but he died in hospital.
According to the portal, the increase in cases of shark attacks is provoked by the warming of the world’s oceans. This encourages predators to move from the less populated southern hemisphere to the cooler, more populous northern hemisphere, increasing the likelihood of shark encounters with humans.
Advances in diving equipment may also have contributed to the rise in attacks. Now people can spend much longer in the water, which increases the risk of encountering a shark.
Another reason lies in the pollution of the world’s oceans and overfishing. Large predators lack food and are increasingly coming to shallow coastal waters.
Experts also believe that due to the ban on killing sharks, their population has increased significantly, which increases the risk of people meeting a predator while swimming.