By Teaniel Mifsud, PhD candidate, University of Wollongong
Every summer in Australia, sharks are discussed in the media, at the beach and across the kitchen bench.
These discussions increase whenever there is a recorded incident of a bite or fatality. In the last month, after the shark bite incident in Sydney Harbour and the release of the International Shark Attack File (ISAF) research explaining the rise in the average global number of shark bite fatalities, these discussions arose again.
As a researcher whose PhD research centres on human-shark encounters, I am intimately aware of this increased interest. During these periods, the main question I am asked is, "What is the risk of being bitten by a shark?"
There is an intense fascination with understanding the risk or threat sharks pose. My immediate response is always to explain that there is a minimal chance of being bitten by a shark.
Questions and discussions revolving around the risk posed by sharks highlight the concern wider society has. However, when explored in greater detail, this concern is vastly overestimated.
There are many well-documented reasons why a negative or fearful perception exists. The ‘Jaws effect’ is a strong reason. The 1974 novel Jaws, which details a large Great White shark terrorising a beach town in Long Island, New York and the subsequent 1975 film directed by Steven Spielberg, has shaped how sharks have been viewed ever since.
The stereotype of the large shadowy creature stalking an unsuspecting swimmer or surfer before ending in terror and death has filled the collective imaginations of ocean-users and beachgoers alike, including here in Australia.
This image now influences public behaviour, perceptions and even policy decisions. While this image is directly contrasted with more favourable perspectives of the species, the perception that the risk posed by sharks is high continues to persist, often at the expense of other far greater threats.
In 2023, 17 shark bite incidents were recorded in Australia, with four resulting in a fatality, according to the Australia Shark Incident Database. These fatalities are compared to the 125 coastal drowning deaths recorded throughout the 2022/23 season.
Coastal drowning therefore poses a far greater risk to ocean-users than sharks do. For ocean-users, the chances of a shark encounter resulting in injury or death are incredibly low.
Although databases like the Australia Shark Incident Database can provide important information and collect shark bite incidents, crucial perspectives are missing. How do ocean-users encounter sharks outside of these incidents?
Questions such as this and wanting to understand how people who have encountered sharks perceive the risk posed by sharks formed the basis of my PhD research.
Having spent part of my early 20s as a Fairy Meadow Surf Life Saving Club member, I was aware of anecdotal stories of shark encounters from more experienced members. Many of these encounters were described as anything but fearful or risky. And it was these stories that I wanted to capture and further understand.
After collecting stories and responses from more than 100 ocean-users across the Illawarra and South Coast through a crowdsourced map, it became apparent that they perceive the risk of sharks differently from most of the public.
For many of the ocean-users I interviewed over two years, two main points emerged: encountering sharks was neither scary nor death-defying and, for them, the risk from the shark during the encounter was minimal. When reflecting on their encounters, ocean-users found they were initially shocked by encountering a shark, but this quickly changed into feelings of excitement or amazement.
For the majority of the ocean-users interviewed, when encountering sharks or just when they were in the ocean, participants used their own knowledge and experience to help minimise the risk they may have felt. Although not ignorant of the risk, for many surfers, divers and swimmers I interviewed, sharks were part of the ocean ecosystem, and their presence was an accepted part of being in the ocean.
These perspectives revealed that the ocean-users’ perceived risk of sharks is not as high as the general public’s.
Drawing on the perspectives of the ocean-users whom I have interviewed, it has become apparent that there is an overt focus from the media, the public, and researchers on the risk posed by sharks. This focus often ignores the actual minimal risk posed by sharks and chooses to pay attention to the perceived risk.
By querying this idea further with ocean-users who have encountered sharks, I have discovered they believe sharks pose a minimal risk to them even when encountered.
This suggests that perhaps the focus given to shark bite mitigation is oversubscribed and – rather than continuing to not only pay attention to this issue but commit large amounts of government funding – we should turn our attention to other issues that pose a threat to humans while in the ocean, such as coastal drowning.
About the writer
Teaniel Mifsud is a PhD candidate in the School of Geography and Sustainable Communities, where her work focuses on exploring human-shark encounters on the South Coast of New South Wales. Prior to starting her PhD in 2020, Teaniel completed a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in 2015 and a Bachelor of Social Sciences in 2019 at the University of Wollongong. Her PhD research aims to understand the experiences and perspectives of ocean-users when encountering sharks and how this may impact their relationship with ocean spaces.
