{"id":489394,"date":"2026-02-19T04:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T04:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/489394\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T04:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T04:52:09","slug":"australia-heads-world-table-for-fatal-shark-attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/489394\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia heads world table for fatal shark attacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia recorded the world’s highest total of fatal shark attacks<\/a> on humans last year, with more great whites gathering in waters popular with surfers, new research found.<\/p>\n

The International Shark Attack File released today confirmed there were 12 fatalities (nine of which were classified unprovoked) worldwide, with Australia accounting for five.<\/p>\n

Other countries to record deaths last year included the United States<\/a>, Mozambique, South Africa and Vanuatu.\"\"\/There was a rise in global human deaths from shark attacks last year, new research shows. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

The global total of 12 fatalities was up from the previous year’s seven.<\/p>\n

There were 65 confirmed unprovoked attacks globally, a jump from the 47 in 2024 and above the five-year average of 61.<\/p>\n

Last year US waters had the most incidents – \ufeff25 – with 11 off the coast of Florida.<\/p>\n

Australia was in second spot recording 21 unprovoked attacks.<\/p>\n

Researchers from the University of Florida who drew up the report noted an increase in fatalities from great whites.<\/p>\n

Bigger numbers of the species at “aggregation sites”, beaches favoured by surfers, especially in Australia, may be behind this, they suggested.<\/p>\n

\"NSWGreater numbers of great white sharks are gathering off Australian beaches popular with surfers, new research suggests. (Getty)<\/p>\n

The Australian coastline is also home to the bull and tiger sharks, which along with great whites make up the “big three” \ufeffpredators.<\/p>\n

But Director of the Florida Program for Shark Research Gavin Naylor highlighted the response of Australian emergency services to shark attacks.<\/p>\n

“If these bites occurred anywhere other than Australia, they would probably have resulted in even more fatalities,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Their beach safety is second to none. Within minutes of a bite, they’ve got helicopters airborne ready to respond,” Naylor said. \ufeff<\/p>\n

This year began with a grim reminder of the danger from sharks when record rain in just 48 hours in NSW – considered a once-in-a-500 year event – created a perfect storm for bull sharks<\/a> to lurk in coastal waters.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Last month, eastern Australia recorded four shark attacks in the spate of 48 hours, which included the fatal mauling of 12-year-old Nico Antic off Sydney by a suspected bull shark. \ufeff<\/p>\n

NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia recorded the world’s highest total of fatal shark attacks on humans last year, with more great whites…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":["post-489394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}