User:Sharklog

The Global Shark Attack File

Although extremely rare, about 80 – 100 times per year, worldwide, sharks remind us that they are wild creatures, particularly when one makes headlines by biting a person. While many prefer to ignore these infrequent events, they can provide an opportunity to examine more closely the behavior of a shark and environmental factors associated with the interaction. By examining these factors, insights may be gained into the shark’s motivation.

The first person to study shark attacks was an Australian physician, Victor Coppleson in the 1930s[1]. In 1958, his the landmark book on the subject was published: Shark Attack[2].

In April 1958, the US Office of Naval Research assembled 34 internationally recognized shark experts, including Stewart Springer, W. I. Follett, Ralph S. Collier[3,4] and David Davies[5].

Following the meeting they formed a panel to consider research which might lead to development of technologies to protect US Military personnel from shark attack. Under the direction of Perry W. Gilbert, Cornell University, and Leonard P. Schultz, Smithsonian Institution, a Shark Attack File (SAF) was initiated to gather data on shark attacks. By 1967, basic information on more than 1,600 cases had been gathered, but that same year, government funding was withdrawn and the file was placed in storage. In 1974, H. David Baldridge summarized 1165 SAF cases believed to be legitimate in the publication, Shark Attacks on Man[6], which was followed a year later by his book Shark Attack[7].

Meanwhile, many of the shark experts continued to compile information on shark attacks. In South Africa, David Davies of the Oceanographic Research Institute continued to conduct some of the most detailed investigations ever undertaken of shark attacks [8,9,10,11,12,13,14]. After Davies untimely death in 1965, Tim Wallett of the Natal Sharks Board (NSB) continued his work and subsequently published Shark Attacks in Southern African Waters and Treatment of Victims[15]. In the mid-1980s, Marie Levine, then Senior Liaison Officer of the NSB, re-activated the South African Shark Attack File and, in addition to gathering historical data, interviewed more than 1200 victims, witnesses and medical personnel involved in shark attacks in South Africa and Mozambique.

In 1980, the SAF was transferred to the National Underwater Accident Data Center at the University of Rhode Island under the direction John J. MacAniff. Due to lack of funding, the files were put in storage the following year.

For nearly a decade the SAF remained dormant. In the late 1980s the files were moved to the University of Florida and renamed the International Shark Attack File (ISAF). Throughout the years that the SAF was in storage, many physicians, medical examiners, surgeons and shark scientists continued to gather data on shark attacks. A few articles published during this time are listed in the bibliography[16,17,18,19,20,21].

At a medical conference in the late 1980s a group of physicians and surgeons who had treated a number of shark attack victims reviewed the data in the SAF. Finding only scant, and frequently conflicting, information, they decided to create a file that would provide more accurate historical and current data on shark/human interactions – the Global Shark Attack File (GSAF). The initial objectives were to determine the most effective medical care for victims of a shark attack and to understand those factors that motivated a shark to bite a human, including environmental conditions. Soon after formation of the GSAF, marine biologists, shark behaviorists, molecular biologists, historians, psychologists, lifeguards, fishermen and marine researchers joined forces to provide timely onsite investigations.

In 1991, the Shark Research Institute was asked to maintain the GSAF. Under the stewardship of Ralph S. Collier, GSAF continues to receive case files from medical personnel, the science community, the media, law enforcement agencies, case investigators, and institutional and private shark attack files around the world.

To provide transparent, accurate, current information to the media and general public, the GSAF maintains a website at www.sharkattackfile.net. The website contains information on species of sharks, recommendations, bibliography, and the Incident Log — a downloadable Excel spreadsheet that provides names, dates, locations, activities, injuries sustained, species of shark thought to be involved, and verifiable references.

The spreadsheet lists more than 5,000 incidents worldwide from 458 BC to the present, and it is updated with each new case. Nevertheless, it is the GSAF case files themselves that contain the greatest wealth of data for researchers. Some journal papers and books written by GSAF contributors and investigators are listed in the references at the end of this article [22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31].

The study of shark attacks began in an age of fear of sharks, at a time when many people believed that all sharks were “man-eaters”. As our understanding of sharks has grown, and the actual rarity of these incidents becomes apparent, it is fast dispelling the fear of sharks, and replacing it with knowledge of the minimal risks presented by sharks, the recognition of the critical role played by sharks in stabilization of the marine ecosystem, and the vital necessity for conservation of sharks.

1 Coppleson, Victor M. (1933). Shark attacks in Australian waters. Medical Journal of Australia, 1 (15): 449-467.

2 Coppleson, Victor M. (1958). Shark Attack. Angus and Robertson: Sydney, 266 pp.

3 Collier, R.S. (1964). Report on a recent shark attack off San Francisco, California. California Fish & Game. 50 (4): 261-264.

4 Collier, R.S. (1964). Report on a recent shark attack off San Francisco, California. California Fish & Game. 50 (4): 261-264.

5 Davies, David (1964). About Shark and Shark Attacks, Brown Davis and Platt, Ltd: Durban, 237 pp.

6 Baldridge, H. David. (1973). Shark Attack Against Man, A Program of Data Reduction and Analysis. Sarasota: United States Navy, Office of Naval Research.

7 Baldridge, H. David (1975). Shark Attack. Berkley Medallion Books, USA, 263 pp.

8 Davies, David H. (1961). Shark Attack off the East Coast of South Africa, 22nd January, 1961, Investigational Report No. 4, Oceanographic Research Institute, South African Association for Marine Biological Research.

9 Davies, David H. (1962). The Shark Problem. South African Journal of Science, Vol.58, No.9, September 1962, pp.254-257.

10 Davies, David H. (1963). Shark Attack and its relationship to temperature, beach patronage and the seasonal abundance of dangerous sharks, Investigational Report No.6, Oceanographic Research Institute.

11 Davies, David H., (1963). The problem of shark attack. Symposium paper presented to the Annual Congress of the Institute of Public Health: Durban, October 1963: 1-7.

12 Davies, David H. & Jeanette D. D'Aubrey (1961). Shark Attack off the East Coast of South Africa, 24 December 1960, with Notes on the Species of Shark Responsible for the Attack. Investigational Report No.2, Oceanographic Research Institute, South African Association for Marine Biological Research.

13 Davies, David H. and Jeanette D. D'Aubrey (1961). Shark Attack off the East Coast of South Africa, 6 January 1961, Investigational Report No.3, Oceanographic Research Institute South African Association for Marine Biological Research.

14 Davies, David H. and Jeanette D. D'Aubrey (1961). Shark Attack off the East Coast of South Africa, 1st February, 1961. Investigational Report No.5, Oceanographic Research Institute, South African Association for Marine Biological Research.

15 Wallett, Timothy Stuart. (1978). Shark Attack in Southern African Waters and Treatment of Victims. Struik Publishers: Cape Town.

16 Randall, John E. (1963). A fatal attack by the shark, Carcharhinus Galapagensis , at St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. Carib. J. Science. 3 (4) December 1963, 201-205.

17 Randall, John E. & Gene S. Helfman, (1973). Attacks on Humans by the Blacktip Reef Shark, Carcharhinus melanopterus. Pacific Science. 27(3).

18 Randall, J. E. and M.F. Levy. (1976). A near-fatal shark attack by a Mako in the northern Red Sea. Israel Journal Zoology. 25:61-70.

19 Balazs, George H., and A.K.H. Kam (1981). A review of shark attacks in the Hawaiian Islands, Elepaio. 41:87-105.

20 McCosker, John E. (1985). White Shark Attack Behavior: Observations and Speculations About Predator and Prey Strategies" in Memoirs Southern California Academy of Sciences. 9:123-135.

21 Nelson, D.R., R.R. Johnson, J.N. McKibben and G.G. Pittenger (1986). Agonistic attacks on divers and submersibles by Grey Reef Sharks, Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos: antipredatory or competitive? Bulletin Marine Science. 38:68-88.

22 Collier. R.S. (1992). Recurring attacks by White Sharks on divers at two Pacific sites off Mexico and California. Environmental Biology of Fishes. 33:319-325.

23 Collier, R.S. (1993). Shark attacks off the California islands: review and update. Third California Islands Symposium: Recent Advances in Research on the California Islands. F.G. Hochberg (editor). Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History: Santa Barbara, California, pp.453-462.

24 Collier, R.S., Mark Marks and Ronald W. Warner (1996). White Shark attacks on inanimate objects along the Pacific Coast of North America in Great White Sharks: biology of Carcharodon carcharias. A. Peter Klimley and David Ainley (editors). Academic Press: San Diego, pp.217-222.

25 Levine, Marie, (1996) Shark Attacks of Southern Africa in Great White Sharks: biology of Carcharodon carcharias. A. Peter Klimley and David Ainley (editors). Academic Press. San Diego. pp.217-222.

26 Collier, R.S. (2003). Suggested protocol for the scientific investigation of shark attacks in Field Guide to the Great White Shark. R. Aidan Martin (editor). ReefQuest Centre for Shark Research, Special Publication No. 1. Vancouver. B.C. pp 152-159.

27 Collier, Ralph S. (2003). Shark Attacks of the Twentieth Century from the Pacific Coast of North America: Scientia Publishing LLC, 263 pp. http://www.scientiapublishingllc.com/

28 Ritter, Erich and Marie Levine (2004). Use of Forensic Analysis to Better Understand Shark Behaviour. Journal of Forensic Odonto-Stomatology, Volume 22, Number 2, 40-46.

30 Ritter, Erich. K, and Marie Levine (2005), Bite motivation of sharks reflected by the wound structure on humans. American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology. Jun; 26(2):136-40.

31 Ritter, Erich, Kai Lutz and Marie Levine (2008). When Humans and Sharks Meet in New Developments in the Psychology of Motivation. Filip M. Olsson (editor). Nova Biomedical Books. New York. pp.45-52