Unprovoked shark attacks up sharply in 2025, with 12 human deaths worldwide

The number of people killed or bitten by sharks in unprovoked attacks globally increased significantly in 2025, a report published on Wednesday has found, while a single Florida county maintained its crown as the so-called shark bite capital of the world.The International Shark Attack File, compiled by the Florida Program for Shark Research at the Florida" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="32634" data-entity-type="organization">University of Florida, recorded 65 unprovoked attacks worldwide, up from 47 during 2024, and an increase on the five-year average of 61.The report confirmed 12 human fatalities from shark bites during the year, almost double the previous year’s total of seven, which it suggested might be because of increasing numbers of great white sharks at “aggregation sites”, beaches popular with surfers, especially in Australia.“Shark bites are the consequence of the biology of the animals, the climatic conditions and the number of people in the water at the time of the incident,” Gavin Naylor, the organization’s program director said.Despite the year-on-year figures changing dramatically, the report notes that the 10, 20 and 30-year averages for unprovoked bites differ by only four, and the average number of fatalities remained unchanged at six.“These global patterns change only slightly from one year to the other. But the regional incidents do oscillate a lot,” Naylor said.Five of the year’s fatalities were in Australia, with 21 unprovoked bites in the country. The previous year there were only nine bites classed as unprovoked, determined to be when a shark bites a person in its natural habitat with no prior interaction, and zero fatalities.“If these bites occurred anywhere other than Australia, they would probably have resulted in even more fatalities. Their beach safety is second to none. Within minutes of a bite, they’ve got helicopters airborne ready to respond,” Naylor said.In one of the incidents, a woman in her 20s was killed and her male companion seriously injured when a large bull shark attacked them as they swam from a beach at Crowdy Bay, New South Wales, in November.Overall, the US remained at the top of the list, with 25 unprovoked bites, three fewer than the year previously, and with the number of fatalities unchanged at one. The sole recorded death in the US was triathlete Erica Fox, whose body was found in December near Santa Cruz, California, almost a week after the 55-year-old vanished during a group training swim with about a dozen others near Monterey.Florida again saw the most unprovoked attacks in the US with 11, more than twice as many as any other state. Of those, six took place in Volusia county on Florida’s Atlantic coast, long recognized as the world’s most prolific site for shark bites.Yet in both the state and county, numbers were down slightly on previous years. Elsewhere in the US, California and Hawaii each had four non-fatal unprovoked bites, South Carolina two, and New York, North Carolina and Texas one each.The report notes several firsts. In South Africa, a fisherman became the first recorded fatality from a dusky shark, a large, coastal species often confused for other types of shark. A fatal attack by a dusky shark in Israel in April was not included in the report because it was considered provoked.Elsewhere, Canada saw its first unprovoked shark attack since 2021, when a man escaped injury as a great white shark bit through his paddleboard.The report says the “big three” species, white sharks, tiger sharks and bull sharks, each with serrated teeth, powerful jaws and a large size, were responsible for most of the serious bites. At the same time, the report notes, global shark populations remain far below historical levels, largely because of overfishing.The chances of being bitten by a shark also remain statistically very low. According to the CDC, more than 4,000 people in the US drown each year. And lightning strikes globally kill an estimated 24,000 people each year, with about 10 times as many injuries.