They are actually fewer sharks today, but the overwhelming growth in the human population puts more people in the water, increasing encounters with sharks, said Burgess at this week' s meeting of the American Elasmobranch Society in Mexico. The flip side is that as more people spend time in the water, an individual's chance of being the object of an attack is lessened, said Burgess. Director of the International Shark Attack File, Burgess is part of a group of researchers who are learning more about what makes a shark bite by studying the more than 3000 shark attacks that have been investigated over the last several decades worldwide. Often attacks are under conditions where the water is murky and there is small baitfish around to attract the predator, he says.
Most shark attacks are by small sharks that, for instance, mistook a foot for a fish.
But sharks are curious animals, willing to try out new things, said shark behavior enthusiast Erich Ritter of Green Marine, a shark organization in Miami. Eventually Burgess hopes they will be able to predict shark attack conditions so as to keep people out of harms way. We all think we are making a lot of progress, but we have a long way to go. Stargazing Check out our telescopes and accessories.