Global shark attack level remains low

MIAMI: Shark attacks worldwide dropped to ‘‘extremely low’’ numbers in 2020, but fatal bites spiked to more than twice the recent fiveyear average in what researchers are calling an anomaly.

Deaths from unprovoked shark attacks jumped to 10 compared with an average of four in the 201519 period, according to the annual survey in the University of Florida’s International Shark Attack File. Six of the fatal bites occurred in Australia, three in the United States and one in the waters of St Martin in the Caribbean.

Attacks fell for the third consecutive year to 57 unprovoked bites worldwide in 2020, compared with 64 in 2019 and 66 in 2018. The fiveyear global average fell to 80 incidents annually.

The increase in fatalities does not indicate a trend, according to Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Museum of Natural History’s shark research programme, who added: ‘‘One year does not make a trend.’’ — The Miami Herald