Shark Attacks
Has climate change increased the rate of shark attacks on swimmers over recent decades?
Correct Answer
A 2019 paper in the journal PLoS One studied shark attacks per million people in nations with the most shark attacks and found that "the majority of countries saw no perceptible trend or change" since 1960. A few nations like Australia showed rising trends, but a 2011 paper in the journal Marine and Freshwater Research found that the reason for the increase is because people are spending more time in the ocean. This is primarily because "of improvements in wetsuit technology," which have allowed surfers, snorkelers, and SCUBA divers to do these activities "any time of the year and extend the time they spend in the water in areas that, in earlier decades, were likely to be too cold for recreational purposes." Nevertheless, media outlets like NBC have misused anecdotes about shark attacks to claim that "climate change means warmer waters, which brings sharks closer to shore."
DocumentationPLoS One Marine and Freshwater Research Video of These Facts