Editorial: Australian states soften language around shark attacks

Are great white sharks being maligned by the language we use? Photo / Clinton Duffy, File

EDITORIAL

Two Australian states say their sharks will no longer "attack". They will only "bite".

Queensland and New South Wales have softened the language in reporting events involving sharks, seeking more nuance. Official accounts will henceforth refer to occasions when people are mauled as "encounters" or even the more vague "incidents".

Thankfully for small mercies, the terminology is not born of a concern for the sharks' feelings but is said to be in keeping with scientific thinking. Leonardo Guida, a shark researcher at the Australian Marine Conservation Society, told the Sydney Morning Herald using the right words "helps dispel inherent assumptions that sharks are ravenous, mindless, man-eating monsters".

Discussions about softening the tone have been going on in academic and conservation circles for at least 10 years but have reached new prominence with the recognition from officials in the two Australian states.

None of this prevents anyone from shouting whatever comes to mouth when unexpectedly up close with Mother Nature's apex predator. But do not feel pressured to prepare a speech, shark attacks (sorry, encounters) are still very rare. The Florida Museum - the US state with the deadliest record in the world for shark, err, incidents - ranks chances of death by shark at just one in 3.75 million.

You are still way more likely to be killed by fireworks, a train crash, lightning or drowning (one chance in 1134) - or should that be life-unenhanced?

There's no word yet what golfing great Greg Norman thinks of the revised vernacular but several extortionately high-interest loan providers are said to be most comforted.