The number of shark attacks on humans globally decreased in 2022, but is experiencing "worrying spikes" in some regions, according to an international registry kept by researchers at the University of Florida (United States).
Last year, they recorded 57 such accidents, most of which occurred in the United States and Australia.
Five of these attacks were fatal, compared to nine in 2021 and ten the previous year.
The researchers only take into account so-called "unprovoked" attacks in the register, i.e. attacks that cannot be attributed to human stimuli, such as the presence of fishing lines thrown in the direct vicinity of the accident or of fish used as bait by spearfishers.
"
Unprovoked bites give us a lot more information about shark biology and behavior ,
"
said Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Museum of Natural History and author of an article on sharks.
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