How many people get attacked by sharks each year?
Since Australia was occupied by white settlers in 1788, there have been a total of 344 shark attacks in Australia, 136 of which have been fatal (data up to 2007). This is a yearly average of 1.6 attacks per year, with 0.6 fatalities per year. Vending machines cause 2.18 deaths per year (data from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission). More people also are killed by bees per year (1.8 deaths per year according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics). Additionally, for every person killed by a shark, over 23 million kg of sharks and rays are killed by humans, either through fishing or by control programs such as beach netting.
