Three unprovoked bites by a cookie cutter shark were recorded in 2019, more than doubling the amount of recorded instances in the last century combined, according to the University of Florida’s International Shark Attack File.
Of the nearly 6,400 records of unprovoked shark bites on a human, only two other accounts of unprovoked cookiecutter bites have been recorded: one in 2009 in Hawaii’s Alenuihaha Channel and one in 2017 in North Queensland, Australia.
“They’re quite mysterious animals,” Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Museum of Natural History’s shark research program, said. “While they’re found all over the world, we don’t know how many of them there are, or how exactly they create this seemingly perfect circle. They can look pretty pathetic, like a lazy sausage, but they can do a lot of damage.”
While the number of bites from cookie cutters, which are easily identified by their distinctive bite patterns, increased dramatically, the overall number of bites around the globe decreased significantly. In 2019 only 64 instances of an unprovoked shark bit were recorded — 22% lower than the most recent five-year average of 82 incidents a year. Only two of this incidents, one in Reunion and one in the Bahamas, were fatal.
“We’ve had back-to-back years with unusual decreases in shark attacks, and we know that people aren’t spending less time in the water,” Naylor said. “This suggests sharks aren’t frequenting the same places they have in the past. But it’s too early to say this is the new normal.”
The ISAF investigates all human-shark interactions, but focuses its annual report on unprovoked attacks, which are initiated by a shark in its natural habitat with no human provocation.
Once again Florida was the leader in shark bite instances around the globe with 21 unprovoked bites recorded. Volusia County had the most shark bites with nine, followed by Duval, 5, and Brevard, 2, with single attacks in Broward, Martin, Nassau, Palm Beach and St. Johns counties. The United States as a whole led the world in shark attacks with 41 bites, up from 32 the previous year.
Overall the U.S. had 41 recorded instances. Hawaii had nine–triple the number recorded the previous year. California and North Carolina had three shark attacks each. Single bites occurred in Georgia, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina and the Virgin Islands.
Australia had the second-most shark attacks globally with 11, a decrease from the country’s most recent five-year average of 16 bites annually. The Bahamas followed, with two attacks.
Single bites occurred in the Canary Islands, the Caribbean Islands, Cuba, French Polynesia, Guam, Israel, Mexico, New Caledonia and South Africa, once a hotspot for shark attacks.
“The news coming out of South Africa is that they’re not seeing as many sharks,” said Tyler Bowling, manager of the ISAF. “White sharks have been moving out of some areas as pods of orcas move in, and there are reports that sharks are disappearing along the whole Cape.”