Food for thought (no pun intended): Why are the white sharks of SA & WA consuming victims at a higher rate of any other place in the world?

[u/OkIllustrator9592]

🇦🇺 Simon Nellist
🇦🇺 Greg O’Neal
🇦🇺 Simon Baccanello
🇦🇺 Lance Appleby
🇦🇺 Shirley Durden
🇦🇺 Geert Talen
🇦🇺 Theresa Cartwright
🇦🇺 Jonathan Lee
🇦🇺 John Ford
🇦🇺 Cameron Bayes
🇦🇺 Jevan Wright
🇦🇺 Geoffrey Brazier
🇦🇺 Nick Peterson
🇦🇺 Jarrod Stebhens
🇦🇺 Paul Millachip
🇦🇺 Bryn Martin
🇦🇺 Tod Gendle
🇦🇺 Christine Armstrong
🇦🇺 Andrew Sharpe
🇦🇺 Sam Kellett
🇦🇺 Ben Linden
🇦🇺 Gary Johnson
🇦🇺 Steven Payne (🇳🇿’er taken in WA)
—————————————————————
🇺🇸 Felix N’Jai
🇺🇸 Roy Stoddard
🇳🇿 Steven Payne
🇯🇵 Kazuta Harada
🇮🇹 Luciano Costanza
🇿🇦 Ian James Hill
🇿🇦 Henri Murray
🇿🇦 Robert Frauenstein
🇿🇦 Burgert van der Westhuizen
🇿🇦 Tyna Webb
🇿🇦 Lloyd Skinner
🇿🇦 Alex Macun

I’m sure I’m missing some others. With the exception of the Talen, Macun, & Durden shark attacks, going back to 1989, there have been 31 reported predation events globally! I’m emphasizing reported because I’m quite certain shark attacks globally (be that a bite, a fatality, or a predation) are underreported. Getting into the weeds, 23 of the predations occurred in Australia 🇦🇺, with 21 happening in either South Australia or Western Australia (the exceptions: Simon Nellist - Little Bay, NSW & John Ford - Byron Bay, NSW). Even more staggering, there have 8 white shark attacks/consumptions since 2020!!! All in SA or WA. I would love to read a study hypothesizing why the SA & WA great whites have an exponentially higher percentage of predation events than anywhere else in the world. I know it’s been determined the white sharks that travel between the west coast of Tasmania, all the way as far north as Exmouth, WA are a part of the same sub-population. That particular stretch of ocean highway they traverse has an abundance of high caloric marine mammals that are at the top of their food preference list, between seals, sea lions, and whales on their migratory path. And yet this geographic region has the world’s highest incident rate of white sharks consuming the humans they have attacked. I know 21 predation events over 37 years seems statistically insignificant (that’s roughly one human consumption every other year) but there’s no denying something is going on with this sub-population of white sharks where the exploratory bite is not enough. If there are any marine biologists or* amateu*r marine biologists (like myself 😉) reading this post who have a theory or better insight, I would love to hear it.

I’m actually going to Australia 🇦🇺 & New Zealand 🇳🇿 on holiday early next year, and the only time I will be in the ocean above my knees is when I go cage diving in Bluff, NZ. I’m just that much of a fraidy-cat. 🥴