I plan on diving as much as humanly possible while I’m away. Sometimes I even like to sit on my couch and play Scuba Steve in full dive gear while staring longingly at reruns of Globe Trekker: Sri Lanka & the Maldives.
But I digress …
Many travelers harbor irrational fears that affect their journeys and the risks they take. For travelers with a penchant for diving, many fear sharks. In our dive class, our instructors and divemasters underscored how unlikely it is that we’d ever be the victim of a shark attack.
Feeling a bit curious today, I decided to find out just how unlikely. Finding worldwide shark attack statistics was easy, however the only comprehensive list of “cause of death” stats I could find was from 2003 and specific to the United States. No matter though because the comparison only reinforces what our instructors told us.
To put things in perspective, I’ve compared fatal shark attacks worldwide to other, what I would consider, rather bizarre ways to die. In increasing order of likelihood:
| Cause of Death | Total Number |
|---|---|
| Shark Attack | 4 (out of 57 total attacks) |
| Contact with hot tap-water | 26 |
| Lightning | 47 |
| Contact with hornets, wasps and bees | 66 |
| Intentional self-poisoning | 5,462 |
“Contact with hot tap-water”? So I’m more likely to be, not just maimed, but actually killed by my hot water faucet at home than dying in a shark attack?
I think it’s fair to say that death by shark is a bit of an irrational fear, no?