A spatial and environmental analysis of shark attacks on Reunion Island (1980–2017)

Taglioni, François; Guiltat, Sébastien; Teurlai, Magali; Delsaut, Mathieu; Payet, Denis

doi:10.1016/j.marpol.2018.12.010

Cited by 16 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Deeper waters could also have a reverse effect, as observed, for example, for the island state of Réunion. There, the topographical features limit the involved sharks to being part of resident populations, so largely eliminating transient sharks along those shorelines, making the resident sharks more prominent year-round [33,34]. This situation around Réunion indicates that the two main species-the tiger shark and the bull shark-are not just part of resident populations; they also seem to be more shore-oriented, again, due to the deeper waters surrounding Réunion likely providing less food for these sharks.…”

Section: Factors Determining the Presented Trend Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Against Common Assumptions, the World’s Shark Bite Rates Are Decreasing

Ritter

Amin

Cahn

2019

Journal of Marine Biology

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The trends of the world’s top ten countries relating to shark bite rates, defined as the ratio of the annual number of shark bites of a country and its resident human population, were analyzed for the period 2000-2016. A nonparametric permutation-based methodology was used to determine whether the slope of the regression line of a country remained constant over time or whether so-called joinpoints, a core feature of the statistical software Joinpoint, occurred, at which the slope changes and a better fit could be obtained by applying a straight-line model. More than 90% of all shark bite incidents occurred along the US, Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand coasts. Since three of these coasts showed a negative trend when transformed into bite rates, the overall global trend is decreasing. Potential reasons for this decrease in shark bite rates—besides an increase in the world’s human population, resulting in more beach going people, and a decrease of sharks due to overfishing—are discussed.

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Section: Factors Determining the Presented Trend Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Against Common Assumptions, the World’s Shark Bite Rates Are Decreasing

Ritter

Amin

Cahn

2019

Journal of Marine Biology

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“…Despite the low probabilities of being bitten by a shark (generally less than 1 attack million people −1 year −1 ) even in the highest-incident regions of the world [ 1 – 4 ], these events attract disproportionately high attention from the media, the public, politicians and bureaucrats [ 5 , 6 ]. This occurs even with the knowledge that about 15% of all incidents worldwide result in a human fatality [ 4 ], although it is considerably higher (46%) in Réunion [ 7 ]. While the disconnect has interesting psychological origins [ 8 ], the repercussions for the conservation of shark species are potentially serious.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The second-highest number has occurred in Australia, with an increasing rate of 0.35 attacks year −1 over a similar period driven mainly by trends in the most populous state of New South Wales [ 24 ]. Other, high-incident regions include South Africa (stable) [ 24 ], Brazil (increasing by 0.07 attacks year −1 ) [ 25 ], Réunion (increasing at 0.05 attacks year −1 ) [ 7 ] and the Bahamas (stable) [ 25 ]. Given ongoing increases in the number of people engaged in in-water activities [ 26 ], it is logical to anticipate increases in shark bites over the coming decades.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Predicting potential future reduction in shark bites on people

et al. 2021

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Despite the low chance of a person being bitten by a shark, there are serious associated costs. Electronic deterrents are currently the only types of personal deterrent with empirical evidence of a substantial reduction in the probability of being bitten by a shark. We aimed to predict the number of people who could potentially avoid being bitten by sharks in Australia if they wear personal electronic deterrents. We used the Australian Shark Attack File from 1900 to 2020 to develop sinusoidal time-series models of per capita incidents, and then stochastically projected these to 2066. We predicted that up to 1063 people (range: 185–2118) could potentially avoid being bitten across Australia by 2066 if all people used the devices. Avoiding death and injury of people over the next half-century is of course highly desirable, especially when considering the additional costs associated with the loss of recreational, commercial and tourism revenue potentially in the tens to hundreds of millions of dollars following clusters of shark-bite events.

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“…At the same time, bull sharks have been implicated in attacks on humans, particularly in Reunion island. Since 2011, the mean number of shark bites per year increased markedly in Reunion Island, from 1.1 to 3 for the periods 1980-2010 and 2011-2019 respectively [7]. Between 2011 and 2019, 27 attacks (including 11 fatal shark bites) occurred in Reunion Island, representing on average 10% of fatal attacks worldwide during the same period.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large-scale movements and site fidelity of bull sharks (Carcharhinus leucas) at Reunion Island (Indian ocean)

Soria

Tremblay²,

Blaison

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Two bull sharks ( Carcharhinus leucas ) were tagged in coastal waters off Reunion Island in the tropical Indian Ocean and where tracked for 174 and 139 days using both popup satellite archival tags (pSAT) and acoustic tags. Both sharks spent a majority of their time inshore (58.1% and 89.9% in the male and the female respectively). The female performed short excursions. The male alternated residence time along the coast with wide ranging movements and performed one extensive open-ocean excursion near a seamount situated at more than 200 km from the island. The differences in the residency and home range of both sharks probably reflect different patterns of foraging and mating behaviors in the male and the female. These results underline the importance of developing risk-mitigation management taking into account the movements of sharks, and of double tagging in telemetry studies that attempt to measure the degree of fidelity of a species.

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A spatial and environmental analysis of shark attacks on Reunion Island (1980–2017)

Abstract: FT and SG conceived and designed the study, collected the data, analysed the data and wrote the manuscript. MT, DP and MD analysed the data. FT conceived the interactive map and DP coded it. All authors proofread and approved the final manuscript.

Cited by 16 publications

References 21 publications

Against Common Assumptions, the World’s Shark Bite Rates Are Decreasing

Against Common Assumptions, the World’s Shark Bite Rates Are Decreasing

Predicting potential future reduction in shark bites on people

Large-scale movements and site fidelity of bull sharks (Carcharhinus leucas) at Reunion Island (Indian ocean)

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