{"id":161378,"date":"2026-02-19T16:48:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T16:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/161378\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T16:48:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T16:48:07","slug":"florida-shark-bites-were-below-average-in-2025-report-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/161378\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida shark bites were below average in 2025, report finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

GAINESVILLE, Fla. \u2013 The Florida Museum of Natural History\u2019s International Shark Attack File<\/a> was just updated for another year, finding that unprovoked shark bites were below average in 2025 for Florida while the rest of the world returned to near-average.<\/p>\n

For the U.S., the number of unprovoked bites has decreased overall during the last five years but, for 2025, accounted for 38% of all incidents worldwide, according to the report. This figure is a departure from how more than 50% of all incidents had occurred in the U.S. since 2019, the report states.<\/p>\n

Eleven of last year\u2019s bites happened in Florida, where Volusia County \u2014 often referred to as the shark-bite capital of the world \u2014 accounted for six of them, according to the report. Still, 11 bites in 2025 is less than Florida\u2019s five-year annual average of 18 bites.<\/p>\n

Global numbers for shark bites leveled out after a sharp reduction of unprovoked bites in 2024, according to the museum. Worldwide, there were a total of 65 bites reported in 2025 \u2014 nine of which resulted in fatalities \u2014 described as slightly less than the most recent 10-year average of 72 bites, the report states.<\/p>\n

[VIDEO BELOW: Massive great white lurks along Fla. coast]<\/p>\n

\u201cThe International Shark Attack Files provide baseline data about shark attacks on people that are rigorously and scientifically investigated, evaluated and summarized on an annual basis. While a significant fraction of incidents likely go unreported, the temporal trends, and local and global patterns of incidents are used to evaluate the biology of the animals, their behavior and the risk they pose to humans,\u201d Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research<\/a> at the Florida Museum of Natural History, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The museum\u2019s International Shark Attack File<\/a> was established in 1958 and includes records dating back to the 1500s. The annual reports are primarily focused on unprovoked bites, defined as incidents in which a person does not initiate contact with a shark, intentionally or otherwise. Activities that influence a shark\u2019s behavior, such as spearfishing or releasing a shark from a hook or net, are not included in the report.<\/p>\n

Brooke Bowser, Florida Museum<\/p>\n

Read more at the museum\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Breaking News Alerts<\/p>\n

Get breaking news alerts delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GAINESVILLE, Fla. \u2013 The Florida Museum of Natural History\u2019s International Shark Attack File was just updated for another…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,77139,29,478,77257,19589,1740],"class_list":["post-161378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-museum-of-natural-history","tag-florida-news","tag-national","tag-shark-bite","tag-sharks","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}