Are sharks more likely to attack surfers, scuba divers, or snorkelers?

[Wingy]

It can sometimes feel like you are dangling bait on surface stops here. Viz is rarely crystal clear which makes the few times you do see a large white all that more atmospheric...fwiw when I've seen them (3 times in a decade) they have done....exactly nothing lol.

Having said that...would I go for a dive down at Albany or Margs today (overcast) - nah probably not.

I used to think there was nothing really worthwhile diving in Perth - the last year of not travelling has shown me some great things here at home. If you make it over this way give me a shout out if you want to slip a dive in at Rottnest - dive & quokka selfie at the pub - Perths finest

 

[aquacat8]

I have to admit at first I misread the title of this thread, I thought it said: Are sharks more likely to ATTRACT surfers, scuba divers, or snorkelers, and I thought, well of course WE like them best...

 

[PugHugger]

. If you make it over this way give me a shout out if you want to slip a dive in at Rottnest - dive & quokka selfie at the pub - Perths finest

I may very well take you up on that! We've been considering doing ADL/Perth for a few nights and then heading up to Ningaloo. Won't be until next year but if it eventuates I'm an average diver and selfie taker but not bad at the pub

 

[aquacat8]

I once watched a documentary about a freediver who went diving with sharks off South Africa and I think she was tagging them too, a real shark whisperer type, and I think there were tigers and maybe great whites. Anyway they were driving in the car along the coast and she was showing where she went diving with them and they passed a certain cove and the driver asked if she went there too and she said "Oh, no that's their dining room!" So maybe there are areas where you don't want to be around them... lots of animals have places to eat, sleep, socialize, get groomed, mate, that are very specific. It might be worth finding out from local shark experts where your local shark "dining room" might be. In California there have been freedivers taken by sharks near seal rookeries: they were in the dining room!

 

[Lucifer911]

I once watched a documentary about a freediver who went diving with sharks off South Africa and I think she was tagging them too, a real shark whisperer type, and I think there were tigers and maybe great whites. Anyway they were driving in the car along the coast and she was showing where she went diving with them and they passed a certain cove and the driver asked if she went there too and she said "Oh, no that's their dining room!" So maybe there are areas where you don't want to be around them... lots of animals have places to eat, sleep, socialize, get groomed, mate, that are very specific. It might be worth finding out from local shark experts where your local shark "dining room" might be. In California there have been freedivers taken by sharks near seal rookeries: they were in the dining room!

good post... our dining room would be Seal Bay and Neptune Island in South Australia. You would have to be insane to dive in either of these 2 places without a shark cage.

 

[Kevrumbo]

 

[Lucifer911]

I have to admit at first I misread the title of this thread, I thought it said: Are sharks more likely to ATTRACT surfers, scuba divers, or snorkelers, and I thought, well of course WE like them best...

the question was out of those 3 categories.. which one has the most risk of being attacked by a shark in terms of mathematical probability?

Keep in mind there are more surfers overall than scuba divers and they spend more time in the water than we do. So shark attacks are always going to be skewed in favour of a surfer than a scuba diver.

Based on statistics I think:

Spearfisher = 1 in 100,000 chance of being attacked by a great white shark
Surfer = 1 in 250,000 chance of being attacked by a great white shark
Snorkeler = 1 in 700,000 chance of being attacked by a great white shark (this is the main stat I'm concerned with)
Scuba diver = 1 in 1,500,000 chance of being attacked by a great white shark

Note these are rough numbers I'm guessing at... maybe the spearfisher is closer to 1 in 10,000 chance of being attacked by any shark.

 

[Wingy]

Well there we have it from the horses mouth. After the disgusting previous govt's attitude towards our sharks Minister for Tourism Paul Papalia just gave a statement on the news in response to Margaret River Masters being cancelled.

"I would've gone out there, but don't ask me, I'm a diver not a surfer..with a shark shield"

GYGT

 

[clownfishsydney]

Not to cause alarm - but Adelaide is one of the few places I am aware of where a shark has taken a diver. There was a fatality on the Glenelg tire reef in 2005.

On 5 June 1993 a mother of triplets was killed by a great white shark while diving at King Island, Tasmania, Australia. The children were on the boat.

Only four days later, on 9 June 1993, a great white shark killed a male scuba diver (diving with his new wife on their honeymoon) at a dive site near Julian Rocks, Byron Bay, in New South Wales, Australia.

There have been at least two other fatal attacks in Australia on scuba divers, ignoring where people were collecting abalone or scallops and thus providing an added incentive for the sharks to investigate.

 

[CuzzA]

the question was out of those 3 categories.. which one has the most risk of being attacked by a shark in terms of mathematical probability?

Keep in mind there are more surfers overall than scuba divers and they spend more time in the water than we do. So shark attacks are always going to be skewed in favour of a surfer than a scuba diver.

Based on statistics I think:

Spearfisher = 1 in 100,000 chance of being attacked by a great white shark
Surfer = 1 in 250,000 chance of being attacked by a great white shark
Snorkeler = 1 in 700,000 chance of being attacked by a great white shark (this is the main stat I'm concerned with)
Scuba diver = 1 in 1,500,000 chance of being attacked by a great white shark

Note these are rough numbers I'm guessing at... maybe the spearfisher is closer to 1 in 10,000 chance of being attacked by any shark.

What study are you basing these statistics from? What source? You can't just throw numbers out there on a whim.

I can tell you right now your numbers are wrong, especially when you narrow it down to one specific species. A quick internet search shows the odds of anyone entering the water being attacked by a shark is at 1 out of 11.5 million. Actually dying from the attack... about 1 out of 300,000,000.

By the way, I resent your blanket condemnation comment on recreational fishing and hope that if you do believe that, then you practice what you preach and do not purchase or consume anything from the ocean. From trendy sushi to pet food, to beer, or peanut butter or women who wear lip stick, etc.

Surprisingly common fish-based products