Sharks attack twice as many kayakers as surfers

Surfers are half as likely to be attacked by sharks as kayakers, new research has shown.

But windsurfers, fishers and boogie-boarders have the least chance of suffering a shark attack.

New data from the Shark Research Committee said of nine authenticated unprovoked shark attacks reported from the Pacific Coast of North America during 2017, four were suffered by kayakers, two by surfers, one each by a paddle-boarder, freediver and a swimmer.

The SRC 2017 Pacific Coast attack dossier reported these comprised eight attacks recorded from California and one from Washington.

The report said the great white shark, Carcharodon carcharias, was positively identified or highly suspected in all nine of the attacks.

In the SRC publication Shark Attacks of the Twentieth Century, which authenticates 108 unprovoked shark attacks from the Pacific Coast between 1900 and 1999., the great white was implicated in 94 (87%) of the confirmed attacks.

There have been 211 authenticated unprovoked shark attacks reported from the Pacific Coast of North America from 1900 through 2017.

The great white shark was positively identified or highly suspect in 186 (88 per cent) of the 211 cases.

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