Statistics of Shark Attacks on Divers

Clothing and Gear Worn or Carried by the Victim of an Unprovoked Attack
(N=202 cases with at least one of the items listed below; individuals may be represented in more than one category)

Clothing And Gear	Attacks (%)	Number of Victims Using this Clothing/Gear
Face Mask With Or Without Snorkel	84.1	185
Swim Fins	68.6	151
Swimsuit	40.9	90
SCUBA	34.5	76
Weapon (ie., Knife, Speargun, or Powerhead)	33.2	73
Wet Suit/Dry Suit	29.5	65
Other Gear	21.8	48
Dive Bag/Stringer	6.4	14
Non Swim Clothing	3.2	7
Hard Hat Suit	1.4	3

This chart reflects the clothing and gear divers wear while diving. It is possible that certain clothing and gear make a human look more like natural prey, but no significant research has been done in this area. The high percentage of victims who wear facemasks is an example of a popular piece of gear that divers wear, not a piece of gear for which sharks attack divers. (Updated February 28, 2008)









Most would expect that shiny features on clothing or gear would attract sharks, and so one would have a higher probability of being attacked by a shark if one swam with shiny features on the clothing or gear. This graph seems to contradict that hypothesis. The highest percentage of victims had no special features on their clothing, while the next highest percentage of victims had highly contrasting colors on their outfits or gear. It is possible that more of the population wears highly contrasting colors on their outfits and gear, or dive with no special features while less of the population swim with shiny features on their clothing and gear. It is possible that this is the cause of higher percentages of attacks on those divers. (Updated February 28, 2008)





What you are looking at is the distribution of clothing patterns on the portion of the population that were attacked while diving. As you can see, most of the divers had no pattern on their swimsuits. This reflects divers' tastes in diving suit patterns more than tastes of sharks. For example, all of the victims who were attacked while nude were from Australia. Diving nude may be more popular in Australia, so more nude divers would be attacked in Australia than anywhere else. (Updated February 28, 2008)

Color of Diving Victims' Gear and Clothing
Order by Area of Color Group

Color	Primary	Secondary	Tertiary	N Primary	N Secondary	N Tertiary
Black/Grey/Slate	64.4	28.6	24.0	47	12	6
Blue/Aqua/Turquoise	15.1	23.8	24.0	11	10	6
White/Silver/Talc	6.8	14.3	16.0	6	5	4
Red/Pink/Rose/Magenta/Coral/Maroon	9.6	11.9	16.0	7	5	4
Brown/Tan/Buff/Rust/Sienna/Cocoa/Beige	4.1	9.5	8.0	3	4	2
Green/Olive/Teal/Lime/Avocado	4.1	9.5	8.0	3	4	2
Yellow/Gold/Khaki/Lemon	1.4	4.8	4.0	1	2	1
Violet/Purple/Mauve	1.5	2.4	8.0	1	1	2
Total				78	44	27

These are the distributions of primary, secondary, and tertiary colors on divers' clothes when they were attacked. A very large proportion of divers who were attacked by sharks wear black gear and clothing as a primary color; however, black is probably one of the most common colors used by manufactures of dive gear. (Updated February 28, 2008)

Color Combinations of Victims' Gear in Unprovoked Shark Attacks on Divers
(N=75)
(first color is primary color, second color is secondary color)

Color	Attacks (%)	Attacks (#)
Black as the only color	21.3	16
Black and blue	14.7	11
Blue as the only color	8.0	6
Black and white	8.0	6
Black and yellow	4.0	3
Black and red	5.3	4
White as the only color	4.0	3
Brown as the only color	4.0	3
Green as the only color	2.7	2
Blue and yellow	2.7	2
Black and Green	4.0	3
Blue and black	1.3	1
Black and Orange	2.7	2
Red and White	2.7	2
Red as the only color	1.3	1
Red and Blue	1.3	1
White and Brown	1.3	1
Yellow as the only color	1.3	1
Red and Green	1.3	1
Red and Orange	1.4	1
Green and Red	1.3	1
Blue and White	1.3	1
White and Orange	1.3	1
Black and Brown	1.3	1
Violet and White	1.3	1

As you can see from the chart above, black alone is the most prevalent color combination on the gear and clothing of divers who were attacked by sharks. The black and blue color combination is the second most prevalent combination, and blue alone is the third. Such high proportions of divers who were attacked while wearing these colors versus those who were attacked while wearing another color gives us reason to believe that black is a color to which sharks are attracted. It is possible that the human form looks less human and more like prey when dressed in dark colors since some of these colors camouflage the wearer. It is also possible that such differences exist because black happens to be a popular color of gear and clothing. (Updated February 28, 2008)











Last updated: February 28, 2008

© International Shark Attack File Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida