If there's one thing that can ruin a day at the beach, it's the sight of a shark fin slicing through the water.
And while people may have good reason to fear a shark encounter, a new Stanford-led study suggests that the risk of being attacked has dropped more than 90 percent over the last 60 years. How did that happen?
While some groups advocate culling sharks, research has shown the practice has no discernible effect on people's chances of an encounter. Instead, Stanford scientists say that a falling shark population near California and sharks' shifting hunting grounds are likely behind the drop. Their study offers these reassuring metrics:
• Scuba divers are 6,897 times more likely to be hospitalized for decompression than for white shark bites.
• You're 1,817 times more likely to drown in the ocean than be attacked by a shark.
• A surfer has a 1-in-17 million chance of being bitten.
