Shark attacks on humans dipped to a 5-year low in 2008, but Florida surfers remained at the top of the shark’s list of favorite targets.
According to George Burgess, Director of the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida’s Museum of Natural History, there were 59 shark attacks around the world in 2008 compared with 71 in 2007.
Florida easily held its lead as the US state with the most shark attacks – of the 41 US shark attacks, 32 were in Florida. Volusia County continued to be the world’s shark bite capital with 22 attacks.
No one knows why the number of shark attacks have dropped off, but Burgess speculates that the poor economy may have caused fewer people to go to the beach, thus lowering the potential for people-shark encounters.
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