More Shadows Attack 49 



Because so many attacks occur near the beach in shallow water, the 

 theory has arisen that some attacks may unfold in this way: 



Some distance from shore, while the bather is swimming in deep 

 water, he is spotted by a shark, which silently glides near and sees a 

 strange creature of fair size. Still curious, but cautious, the shark lurks 

 unseen. As the bather makes for shore, the shark follows. Then, when 

 the bather's feet touch bottom and he begins to wade in, to the shark's 

 eyes it looks as if the strange, large creature it has been following has 

 disappeared, and in its place are two smaller, slow-moving, inoffensive 

 creatures that seem incapable of hostility— the bather's legs. Instinctively, 

 the shark charges them. But, as it does, the bather kicks and thrashes the 

 water. Other bathers rush to his aid, churning the water still more. No 

 cod or sea turtle ever acted this way, so the shark, confounded and 

 frustrated by this unfamiliar behavior of prey, hastily withdraws. 



This is only a theory. Scientists who have been studying sharks and 

 shark attacks are not satisfied that any explanation can be made au- 

 thoritatively for anything a shark does or does not do. We simply do not 

 know enough about sharks or shark attacks. A clue is picked up here, 

 another there. In one case, there is blood in the water and, though sharks 

 are present, they do not attack the swimmer. In another case, there are 

 no apparent conditions for bringing on an attack, yet an attack takes 

 place. The paradoxes appear in attack after attack. 



Until the Shark Research Panel began its study, the facts about attacks 

 throughout the world had never been analyzed so thoroughly. Now, 

 finally, for the first time, an unprecedented world-wide analysis is being 

 undertaken. 



Searching through old medical journals, ships' logs, hospital and 

 physicians' records, and newspaper files from all over the world, the SRP 

 has tracked down information on 1,251 attacks that go back as far as 

 the year 1580. Out of this accumulation of facts has come an analysis of 

 790 shark attacks which the SRP felt were well enough documented to 

 warrant study. The facts about the attacks were then reduced to these 

 statistics: 



Of the 790 attacks, 599 were unprovoked. Of individuals attacked, 

 408 died and 390 recovered. (Many records are incomplete; the total 

 number of persons attacked is n^t known.) 



Most attacks (75.4 per cent) in Australian, North American, and 

 African waters occurred in summer months. But in equatorial waters, 

 attacks occurred equally in all months. This means that the so-called 

 shark-attack season is nothing more than the human swimming season, 

 whenever that happens to be. 



Adost individual attacks (62.2 per cent) occurred within 300 feet of 

 shore. 



