A study published by Louisiana State University has suggested shark attack rates in the eastern United States and parts of southern Australia have doubled in the past 20 years.
Jake Embrey of Stab magazine reported on the research and argued that the increase in reporting on shark attacks and improved technologies were reasons not to be scared, however.
Shark population is also a major factor in the trend, and one line from the study read: “The majority of countries saw no perceptible trend or change in attack rates over decades, while some of the higher population countries like the USA and Australia exhibited increasing attack rates over time.”
Nevertheless, the chance of falling prey to a shark attack in the United States or Australia is still only around two in 10 million, per the study.