Shark attack deaths down 'due to humans fighting back'

MIAMI - Shark attacks dropped in 2005 because people are fighting back more often when threatened and the ranks of ocean predators are thinning, a University of Florida report said.

Worldwide there were 58 shark attacks, down from 65 in 2004, and deaths fell to four from seven, said survey chief George Burgess.

Attack numbers have fallen for five years since reaching a record high of 78, 11 of them fatal, in 2000.

Human-shark encounters are dropping partly because there are fewer sharks, a decline caused by overfishing of the species, which generally is slow to reproduce, Burgess said.

Humans are also taking greater care to avoid areas where sharks gather and fighting back when they get bitten, Burgess said. A surfer bitten by a great white in Oregon drove it away with a punch to the nose, he said.

"They're a predator, they respect size and power," Burgess said. Those already in the jaws of a shark should "claw at the eyes".

- REUTERS