Outside of shark fin soup China AO shark populations are up in USA due to state protection laws and seal populations increasing in certain places. Great white population has doubled so New York and Maine getting more attacks and sightings. Bull sharks being spotted more frequently in waters they were absent. Small kids are the most vulnerable. Shark attacks in the grand scheme of things are rare in the USA but as the OP’s post and thread responses show, bull sharks can turn up anywhere given their freshwater ability, although none in Great Lakes or places very far from the Mississippi. Was a bull shark at Reef Road by Peanut island about the time I went there for surfing in Palm Beach, FL

Bull sharks are the most aggressive, so they're the likely culprit.

Shark attacks are undocumented outside the western world. 8 deaths in South Korea aren’t even listed in the University of Florida tracking site. Not one in Iran, hundreds in India, a French tourist in New Guinea. Shark fatality only list North America, Australia and Europe reliabily. I track shark attacks and have complained to the University of Florida over failures to update. Bull sharks don’t just attack people, they attack horses drinking water and a ton of things that don’t make news headlines because people aren’t involved. Same for tigers, they mainly prefer turtle but they’ve been found to eat all kinds of shit.https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9383639/tourist-killed-sharks-bahamas-jordan-lindsey/amp/ Attached File

Bull Sharks are the puppies of the sea.  Would rather be around Bulls than Dindu's. The data tells me I am right.

https://divernet.com/scuba-news/deaths-blamed-on-female-tiger-shark/ Attached File
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https://www.sharksider.com/14-weirdest-things-sharks-eaten/ Attached File
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https://welovesharks.club/some-of-the-weird-and-crazy-things-tiger-sharks-eat/ Attached File
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https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/sharks-hunt-dogs-in-popular-queensland-waterway/news-story/c557c4a61bfae22c22db717105ea42ec?amp&nk=1e0deebd181c0b04cf98e60217a95745-1660687546 Attached File

i was never leery or scared of the ocean until i went to florida and could actually see through the water

Murky water hides a lot. And you know it’s there, that’s what scares me. I had a lemon shark fly past my arm while I was reloading my speargun. Just came from behind me and all I saw was it’s tail disappearing in to the murk. I GTFO the water.

I don't necessarily disagree with you, as a lot of world statistics are like this. But then what do you think the real number is?

We can extrapolate from the US, which has a pretty significant beach area (all of which is populated by one or more species of "man-eating" shark). But I don't know how reliable that is. I still don't believe that sharks are inherently violent. They are certainly dangerous, but that's as much a product of their size and construction as anything else.

Hard to know. Third worlders don’t always put it in their news. Sharks like any large predator need energy to continue hunting. Generally 87% of the time if it’s not very large tigers, whites or bulls or multiples in the same spot, they either avoid people outright or if they attack and don’t release immediately they’ll eat a leg, hand, foot and decide it’s not high fat content and move on. But with high shark populations today the 1% that decide to eat the bony human despite the bad taste is a higher total number unless you’re around China where they’re shark fin souping all shark species into extinction and now Indonesia fisherman want Chinese shark fin soup money. Unfortunately none of the shark deterrent tech really works. Drowning kills more people than sharks but it’s mainly kids I worry about as sharks bites can have a more fatal consequence for smaller humans. I’ve had a few shark encounters and I’m still here but on any given day that could change, I don’t surf around sunsets or sunrise. I avoid polluted or beaches by rivers after a rainy day and other cautions. I also don’t surf third world beaches with minimal rescue options and no hospitals unless the waves are worth the risk. So no India, Iran, Nicaragua or even Madagascar and Eastern Africa. Attached File
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No Papua New Guinea either, all the way to Australia fir medical help? Fuck that https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/a-french-kitesurfer-survives-a-shark-attack-in-papua-new-guinea/news-story/4833db250b0b22c55d51fb7703b3a594?nk=1e0deebd181c0b04cf98e60217a95745-1660690518 Attached File

Some of what you're describing is the problem - sharks are considerably larger than humans with a hell of a lot of very sharp teeth. "Exploratory" bites are enough to maim and in some cases kill. They may not have "intended" to hunt and kill a human - I know the popular consensus is that surfboards and surfers from underneath appear far more like turtles to them - is not relevant. Obviously, the younger and weaker the target, the more likely a bad outcome becomes. The same things you mention - sunrise and sunset and murky water - are usually the best considerations. But even so it's really not avoidable.

I don't see a significant difference between sharks and bears. Many people think they can live with bears (or other land apex predators), and some do. Until they get eaten. It's still rare, but a wild animal is a wild animal. Just like snorkeling and diving (sans cage) with tigers in the Bahamas. For the most part, the animal will avoid you. It's when they don't that there's a problem. At my home we have plenty of black bears. Even around here, where they frequently encounter humans, they are EXTREMELY skittish and I will often hear them barreling through the woods because they caught my scent while I was out enjoying my bourbon. I hear them, but I rarely see them.

Some are different. Bull sharks I think are like the wasps of the world, out to ruin days more so than any other. I've seen them in SC, taking fish in the Intracoastal. But I don't know of any attacks there (by sharks or gators for that matter) even though the Intracoastal is full of swimmers and partiers in certain spots from April to November.

How many people who see sharks other than nurse sharks were spearfishing?
I spent most of my middle school and high school summers in the middle keys and made probably 100 dives and never saw a predatory shark.
Would fish and dive at Alligator light and never saw any sharks.  
Never one off of pompano as well.
I dont spear fish though.

Just weird how many sightings there are now in the area.

Cave and fresh water diving - no sharks.

Pretty much, we are not anywhere on any sharks {even 20 foot or large great whites} preferred food but between increased shark population in North America and people in water, the odds play out - ignoring, avoiding, exploratory bite, someone who cut their foot and didn’t exit the water, black tips guarding their reef, etc. whatever the details are there’s been an increase in sightings and encounters {not all encounters involve a bite - I’ve been bumped} and it just means % of chance is higher in some places. There’s also a ton of shit that will fuck you up in the ocean that is not sharks; rockfish,  crocodiles in Australia, poison snakes in the tropics, eels, etc. I spent a lot of alone time in the ocean in California and Hawaii from age 8 to 12 but I wouldn’t recommend parents leave their kids unattended in the ocean and have a medic kit, emergency number with backup power bank, annual CPR etc. if they plan on a beach vacation. Kids should be taught to never underestimate the ocean a random wave can knock them down and they’ll be in the ocean so they should be taught about currents. Technology hopefully will improve like watches with warnings from drones. Sharks aren’t out to get humans even the 5 species that actually attack people but once a shark encounters people, it’s like the bears, you won’t know if it’s going to fight or flight and they have the advantage if the choose the fight option. Seal lions on occasion fuck them up and dolphins and orcas also help deter human attacks but I still need to figure a way to bribe an orca patrol security agency.

I have been bitten by fish cave diving. No piranha but some kind of small assholes.

Funny, I was just looking at the UF site thinking to myself, this isn’t a complete list. For instance, I know of a significant tiger shark attack off the coast of Mobile in 1997-1999 timeframe where a girl was attacked by a very large tiger shark (a friend witnessed it-girl jumped in to cool off on a fishing trip, there was a large boil and she was gone, popped up 10-15 seconds later 50 feet away). She was recovered, taken to an oil rig, and  life flighted. She recovered. It’s nowhere to be found.

ETA, haven’t checked UF on this one but we had a diving fatality off Jax last July of a guy by the last name of Obi. They found his gear on the bottom with signs of an attack, whether a true attack or scavenging predation, no one will ever know. Coast Guard suspends search

Personally, I’d rather see more about the cheerleader who should have quit the squad

I have been snorkeling in Nassau.
Almost stepped on the biggest puffer fish I have ever seen.
Then a few minutes later I got checked out by a young barracuda.

I stayed out of the ocean after that.

U Florida is unreliable and inaccurate, I no longer take their info seriously but media does because experts. But I’m not arguing that shark attacks and fatalities would be in the thousands or anything like that. It’s not a common occurrence but people are not getting good info whether that’s companies marketing hokey shark deterrent products or a full accounting of shark encounters, unprovoked attacks and fatalities - especially for non English speaking countries.

Every time I've had them come up in our spot, we are spearing.  And once they arrive we go up.  I had a huge bull come right up to me a few years ago and I poked at it with the spear.  I first thought it was a juvenile GW; that's how big it was.  I've never seen one that fat before.  My dive partner dropped his catch and when the shark went after it, we went straight up from 68ft.  I had nice doormat flounder and held on to it the whole time lol.

I've seen 5ft bullsharks caught by people surf fishing for pompano/ whiting.
I have a GSD - IMO a bite from a 5ft shark would inflict more damage than a bite from a GSD.
"Exploratory" bite, I've seen that in our aquarium; Dwarf Gourami bite (pop) my wife's finger when she cleaning the tank. If sharks are like these little fish, the default setting is will it fit in my mouth. Let me see, bite.
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This absolutely……

I almost always see sharks when I go diving, usually nurse, lemon, reef, black tips & occasionally a bull. Saw a 10 ft (estimate) hammerhead at pennekamp back in early July. Fucker was big.

Barracuda are harmless...and delicious!

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Go to Jupiter about 4X a year, always see Lemons, reef, black tips, sometimes hammers, tigers and bulls. The bull in my pic above was taken in Cabo Pulmo on the dedicated shark dive, 4th time I have done it, they get close and sometimes it is murky.  It can be un nerving to see them come out of nowhere.

Lemon from last trip...

Yeah, if the shark can be identified as a bull, the dive master bangs the tank and that's that. Not worth taking chances. The last time I was in the Keys it was pretty choppy and the single-screw thousand year old diesel dive boat made for a rough ride and some pretty nasty fumes. Maybe three people didn't get seasick before the dive even started, and that was a bad sign. Vomit attracts baitfish, and baitfish attract sharks. They were all nurse sharks that day, thankfully. They would see bulls in the marinas somewhat often. Massive tarpon would hang out and were often waiting for food around the rich people boats. But sometimes they'd scatter very quickly as a bull cruised in, just looking to make trouble.

The thing is you never know. When I would go to southern SC (Fripp) we would swim over to Pritchards (uninhabited, just an old disused university research house) to look for shark's teeth and shells. At low tide, the inlet was a very short swim. At higher tide, you'd be swimming 150 yards or more with a strong current (pulling inland). There were always sharks there, but 99% of the time what the caught were sharpnose, spinner, and blacktip. Nothing fancy. But they would occasionally catch a bull. Am I getting in the water if there's a bull around? Hell no.

Also it’s not just University of Florida. Most tracking doesn’t feature 3rd world attacks/fatalities so Africa/India/Latin America/Asia generally never featured in tallies