Research & Analysis
Global shark attack data from 1900 to present — trends, patterns, and breakdowns across species, geography, and activities. Numbers below cover the full Global Shark Attack File catalog as ingested by sharkdatalab.
Five entry points into the shark attack dataset. Pick whichever fits the question you're trying to answer.
249 country landing pages with statistics, top species, and recent incidents.
Annual breakdowns from 1900 to present — counts, fatality rates, notable incidents.
Side-by-side stats for any 2–4 countries, all-time or filtered to a single year.
60 shark species with taxonomy, distribution, and attack-relevance data.
3 cross-attack narratives — historical clusters, mass-casualty events, and notable hotspots.
Recent editorial pieces synthesizing patterns across multiple incidents — historical clusters, repeat victims, and notable hotspots from the dataset.
A captured tiger shark regurgitated a human arm at Sydney's Coogee Aquarium in April 1935, kicking off one of Australia's most notorious murder investigations. A landmark moment in 20th-century crime history.
After the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis was sunk by a Japanese submarine in the Philippine Sea on July 30, 1945, an estimated 150 of the ~900 men in the water were killed by sharks over the four days before rescue. The single deadliest shark-related event ever recorded.
A series of five shark attacks along the New Jersey coast in July 1916, killing four and injuring one — the events that introduced "rogue shark" panic into popular culture and later inspired Peter Benchley's Jaws.
Shark Data Lab