Sharks are known worldwide for their negative interactions with humans, although these are rare. Public fear of these animals increased after the release of the film Jaws (1975), despite only a small fraction of the 607 currently valid species being involved in incidents. In Brazil, the first records of shark-inflicted injuries date back to the 19th century, but from the 1990s onwards they became increasingly frequent, mainly in Pernambuco, where 82 of the 124 documented cases occurred. In this work, we analyzed all official records of shark bites on the Brazilian coast, evaluating the information contained in different databases (International Shark Attack File, Global Shark Attack File, and Committee for the Monitoring of Shark Incidents) and testing the relationships among quantitative and discrete variables, such as shark species involved, season, daytime period, lunar phase, victim’s gender, severity of injuries, human activity during the incident, and water temperature. A greater frequency of incidents was observed under the full and new lunar phases, and in the early afternoon. Most bites were attributed to the tiger shark ( Galeocerdo cuvier ), mainly in winter. The large size of the animals combined with high bather density and limited access to prompt and effective first aid may explain the high rate of encounters. Nevertheless, these are mostly isolated events and do not represent a national-scale threat, except in the case of the metropolitan region of Recife.
Fortunato et al. (Thu,) studied this question.