Solving ocean crises by unifying and empowering global communities!sm
With the help of donors like you, OpenOceans Global is developing solutions to save our ocean.
With the help of donors like you, OpenOceans Global is developing solutions to save our ocean.
In honor of Shark Week 2021, we have completed a dashboard of global shark attacks by white, tiger and bull sharks from 1990 to 2020. These three species are implicated in most of the shark attacks that result in death or major injuries. The Shark Week release is intended to put into perspective the number of shark attacks, where they occur and to leaven fear with facts.
See information below the dashboard for details on how to use this tool.
Click here to see a larger version of the dashboard.
How to use the Shark Attack Dashboard
The map. The three shark species are represented by icons on the dashboard map, color coded by species.
Click on any of the icons to gain information about any incident.
The popup that results from clicking on one of the icons contains information about the individual incident, including whether it was fatal. A link to information about the species of shark is also provided. In addition, there is a link to a case report that provides more -in-depth information about the incident.
Zoom in to any part of the world to see the approximate location of the incident.
To the right of the map, five different sections provide more information.
Click on the "expand icon" in the upper right-hand corner of each box (including the map) within the dashboard to expand that box. This is particularly helpful with mobile devices.
Incidents by year. The bottom right section of the dashboard includes a chart of incidents by year. Hovering over any year will give you the year and number of incidents. Clicking on the bar for the year will load the locations of the incidents for that year on the map, where they can be more fully investigated.
List of incidents. On the top right, a list of incidents appears, either for the whole list or for any given year, depending what is being shown on the map.
% of attacks by species. Similarly, on the upper left portion of the dashboard, next to the map, the percentage of attacks by the three species of sharks will appear reflecting what is on the map. Hovering over the colored ring will give you the number of incidents as well as the percentage, by species.
Incidents by country. Below the ring, the number of attacks by country appears. Hover over each bar to see the number and the country name.
Incidents by season. To the right of the "incidents by country" chart is a chart providing the number of incidents by season. Hovering over the ring will provide the number of incidents by season. This can be confusing since spring in the Northern Hemisphere happens during fall in the Southern Hemisphere. Just recognize that when comparing seasons.
About the Dashboard
The new dashboard is based on publicly available data from the Shark Research Institute (SRI). The data for each attack is represented on a dynamic map which shows the approximate location of each attack. Each species is color coded by an icon, and clicking on the icon creates a popup with more information about each attack, including whether it was fatal, resulted in injury, or damaged personal equipment such as a surfboard or kayak. Excluded from the map were attacks provoked by people engaging with the sharks in some way, such as poking at them while diving, trying to unhook them from a fishing line, or other provoking behavior. Also excluded were instances where the sharks attacked a boat.
Thank you Sajoy Pottian! The dashboard and related map were developed by Sajoy Pottian, a graduate student in the University of Redlands Geographic Information Science (GIS) program. GIS technology allows in-depth analysis of data that has a geographical component and helps OpenOceans Global to provide global context to what appear to be local problems, like shark attacks. The shark attack dashboard is his Major Individual Project (MIP), a requirement for graduation and for receiving his MS degree in Geographic Information Science.