Why Do Sharks In Australia Attack Nine Times More Men Than Woman?

A surprising study published in Australia recently has found that men are nine times more likely to get attacked and killed by a shark than women.

The results of the study even surprised the Gold Coast’s Bond University, who carried out the research, so much so that head researcher Daryl McPhee needed to double-check his findings.

The study, which focused on shark attacks in and around Australia between 1982 and 2011, showed that 84 percent of unprovoked shark attacks were on men instead of women, while that figure rose to 89 percent in the case of fatalities.

So why do sharks in Australia attack nine times more men than women?

Well, according to McPhee, there could be a perfectly feasible answer to that question, and perhaps an obvious one: “There’s probably more man hours in the water so to speak than women hours globally. Also it may well be tied to males being more risk-prone than females.”

ABC reported that the study also found that Australia has the highest number of fatal shark bites in the world, meaning Australian bathers are more at risk than those in other parts of the world, including America.

According to McPhee, over the last 30 years there were 32 deaths caused by sharks in Australia, 28 in South Africa, and 25 in the United States.

This has something to do with the type of sharks found in Australia as opposed to the types found in America or South Africa: “The United States has a lot of sharks, but has a lot of small sharks. That’s probably the main reason,” said McPhee.

McPhee still holds that, despite the findings of his study, the threat of being actually attacked by a shark is very low.

He believes that education and personal responsibility are vital to reduce the risk of shark attacks: “Swimming with a dead whale, that’s bad; swimming between the flags where surf lifesavers can keep an eye out for sharks is good. If you’re going to swim with the bait, you’re going to become bait,” he said.