65 Unprovoked Shark Bites Worldwide in 2025, Down From Recent Peaks

Sixty-five unprovoked shark bites occurred worldwide in 2025, according to the International Shark Attack File maintained by the Florida Museum of Natural History. That total falls slightly below the most recent 10-year average of 72 and represents a partial recovery from the sharp decline recorded the prior year. Nine of last year's bites resulted in fatalities, compared with a 10-year average of six.

The International Shark Attack File, established in 1958 and containing records dating to the 1500s, focuses specifically on unprovoked bites - incidents in which the person did not initiate contact with the shark intentionally or otherwise. Activities that directly influence shark behavior, like spearfishing or releasing a shark caught in a net, are excluded.

A Shifting U.S. Profile

The United States retained its position as the country with the highest reported shark bite activity, accounting for 38 percent of global incidents in 2025. But that proportion represents a meaningful change from the recent past. The U.S. share exceeded 50 percent in every year from 2019 onward. A drop to 38 percent, while remaining the global leader, suggests the broader trends that drove high U.S. numbers over the past several years may be moderating.

Florida led among U.S. states with 11 bites, which itself reflects a decline. The state's most recent five-year annual average is 18. Within Florida, Volusia County - colloquially known as the shark bite capital of the world for its combination of high surf activity, baitfish concentrations, and swimmer density - recorded 6 bites. That compares with a 10-year average of 9 and a striking spike of 17 bites in 2021.

Of the 25 total U.S. bites, the remaining incidents occurred in California, Hawaii, Texas, and North Carolina.

Notable Incidents

A series of bites along the U.S. East Coast in June attracted significant attention. A 9-year-old girl snorkeling near Boca Grande, Florida, had her hand severed by a shark and was flown to a hospital where surgeons repaired her wrist. Later in June, two swimmers at Hilton Head Island in South Carolina were bitten within a single week, including a 12-year-old girl who was airlifted to a hospital. Days later, a woman wading at Jones Beach State Park on Long Island, New York, emerged with a bite on her foot - the state's only recorded bite.

Officials attributed the Jones Beach incident to a juvenile sand tiger shark (Carcharias taurus). Researchers identified a nursery of sand tiger sharks south of Long Island roughly a decade ago, where juveniles spend their early years before moving further out to sea. Sand tiger sharks are not typically aggressive, but juveniles have been documented accidentally biting humans while pursuing baitfish. When ocean conditions bring schools of baitfish close to shore where people swim, encounters increase. This pattern likely contributed to elevated bite counts in 2022 (8 bites) and 2023 (4 bites) on Long Island.

Australia's Disproportionate Fatality Rate

Australia followed the U.S. with 32 percent of the world's unprovoked bites in 2025 - and accounted for 56 percent of shark-related fatalities. This disproportion is not new; Australian waters consistently show higher fatality rates relative to bite frequency than other regions. Contributing factors include the types of sharks present, the remoteness of some Australian surf locations that delays emergency response, and differences in water temperature and visibility.

Perspective on Risk

The absolute risk of a shark bite remains extremely low. Drowning kills over 4,000 Americans annually, according to the CDC. The World Health Organization estimates that lightning strikes cause roughly 24,000 fatalities worldwide each year - approximately 370 times the number of fatal shark bites globally in 2025. Shark bite statistics matter primarily for ecological monitoring, understanding animal behavior, and managing human-wildlife interactions in coastal zones - not because they represent a significant cause of human mortality.

"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," said Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research. "These global patterns change only slightly from one year to the other. But the regional incidents do oscillate a lot, and these local trends are interesting."

Recommendations and Context

The International Shark Attack File's standard risk-reduction recommendations include swimming with others nearby, avoiding dawn and dusk when shark feeding activity peaks, and staying away from fishing areas where fish are being cleaned or discarded. The File explicitly advises against participating in baited shark dive tours, which are illegal in Florida but permitted elsewhere. Feeding sharks - whether deliberately or through discarding fish near swimming areas - may train them to associate human presence with food.

The File also notes that despite decades of conservation attention to sharks, global shark mortality from fishing has continued to increase. Shark bite counts have remained roughly stable or declined in some regions even as human ocean use has grown - a pattern that reflects the effectiveness of targeted safety measures and possibly declining shark populations rather than an inherent reduction in human-shark encounter risk.