Big bite: A bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas), the species thought to have been responsible for the attack at Woolloomooloo Bay.
Credit: Wikipedia/pterantula
In other news, research revealed last week bucked the Australian trend and showed that, worldwide, the total number of shark attacks declined last year. That study from the University of Florida (UF), in Gainsville, reported a five-year low in shark attacks in 2008.
"I can't help but think that contributing to that reduction may have been the reticence of some people to take holidays and go to the beach for economic reasons," said George Burgess, ichthyologist and director of the International Shark Attack File based at UF.
"We noticed similar declines during the recession that followed the events of 2001, despite the fact that human populations continued to rise," he said.
Burgess agreed that surfers are most at risk, accounting for around 57 per cent of attacks, followed by swimmer and waders (around 36 per cent). Divers are least at risk (around 8 per cent), thought to be partly because sharks fear the streams of bubbles from air tanks.
