Earlier this week my newsfeed was inundated with posts about Mick Fanning's recent encounter with a shark in South Africa, For those who might have missed it, 3 times surfing champion Mick Fanning was competing in the J-Bay Open surfing competition in South Africa when a shark popped up next to him and snagged his leash. As the shark dived, the leash was broken and Mick was knocked off his board; he was picked up by rescue boats which were laid on for the event and whisked off to safety. You can review the whole thing here.
Whilst a shark popping up at a pro surfing event is most definitely news worthy, the real news in this story is how sensationalised this event seems to have become. Once again the media appears to have taken this as an opportunity to showcase sharks in a bad light. The Australian reported that a "large shark stalked and attacked" the champion surfer, The Guardian claims that Fanning "fought off a shark attack" whilst a host on Fox News suggested that officials should be clearing the waters of sharks before an event of this nature!
It may feel as though these over hyped media pieces are all just a bit of fun but in reality they are having a detrimental effect on how the world views sharks. At a time when global shark populations are so vulnerable owing to over fishing and hunting for shark fin soup, shark conservation needs all the public support it can get. Journalists should also have a moral responsibility to report accurately on events, instead of sensationalising their articles in an attempt to get newspapers off the shelf.
Whilst accurate global shark attack statistics are tricky to pin down, the Department of Ichthyology at the Florida Museum of Natural History is attempting to do so with their International Shark Attack File. In 2014, they documented just 3 fatalities from unprovoked shark attacks - and whilst that may seem like 3 too many, if you compare this figure to fatalities from road traffic accidents, alcohol or tobacco, the risk of dying from a shark attack pales into insignificance. Yet most people's perception of the risk of being killed by a shark is much higher owing to the poor media image given to these animals.
In fact, the bad light cast on sharks by the media is so detrimental to their conservation that researchers at the University of Sydney and the Mote Marine Laboratory's Center for Shark Research in Florida have now proposed a new classification system to describe all shark interactions. Currently the majority of news articles which involve sightings or encounters with sharks will be touted as an "attack" - even if the shark simply swims up to someone then swims away. For the sake of accurate reporting, the Neff-Heuter study group has proposed 4 new terms to be used for all shark encounters: Shark sightings, Shark encounters, Shark bites and Fatal shark bites. In this way they hope to separate fact from hype and ensure that the public gets the most accurate record of events.
Thankfully the majority of people who use the oceans - divers, surfers, swimmers - recognise that we are the visitors in the shark's world and are advocates for protecting the marine environment - including the species which live there. This still doesn't excuse sloppy media reporting and an attempt to villify a group of species simply to sell papers.
