Survey says 17% of people would ‘be attacked by shark’ just to have a cool story
A shocking 17% of people say "they'd be attacked by a shark" just to have a cool story.
That is according to a survey of 1,000 Americans who were asked whether they would volunteer to be attacked by a shark, if they knew they would survive.
The research, conducted by FloridaPanhandle.com and YouGov, revealed that 17% would, just for the story.
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That's 170 people, out of 1,000, who would voluntarily put themselves forward as shark bait, if they knew they would survive, just to have an anecdote to share with anyone who would listen.
The survey was conducted for FloridaPanhandle's shark statistics platform, which aims to educate the public on the likelihood of attacks and how to be more aware of predators in the water.
Jasmin Diaz, marketing officer at FloridaPanhandle, who was involved in the data collection, told Newsweek : "Sharks, when they bite, they don't just nibble, you know?
"I think that's interesting that just for the story, people would choose to do that."
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According to the Florida Museum of Natural History's International Shark Attack File, 11 people worldwide were killed by shark bite in 2021.
The museum states that this is slightly above average, but "long-term trends show a decreasing number of annual fatalities".
There were 47 unprovoked bites reported in the U.S. last year, including one fatal incident in California.
Florida accounted for 28 of the 47, or 60%.
In the survey, 41% of respondents also said that if forced to choose between four unfortunate events, they would rather be in a car accident on the interstate at 70mph.
Around 36% opted for a fall out of a third-story window and 12% for a bear attack.
The researchers also looked at the details of shark attacks in the U.S. between January 2000 and October 2022.
The great white shark was responsible for most incidents, with 112, with the bull shark on 63 attacks.
Diaz said these and other statistics were available on the platform "so people can be more aware of where sharks are, hopefully to prevent future shark incidents".
She added: "We just hope that people can be more aware and show them that the sharks are friends [but] sometimes they get confused and they don't really know why they're attacking people."
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