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Updated July 17th, 2021 at 13:04 IST

Australians wish to rebrand shark attacks as ‘negative encounters' or 'incidents'

Australian researchers recommend using words like “incidents,” “bites” or, “a negative encounter" instead of “attack” for all shark-human interactions

Reported by: Vidyashree S
shark attacks
Credit: GEERALD/UNSPLASH/PEPRESENTATIVEIMAGE | Image:self
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As per recent studies, Australian researchers have refused to use the word “attack” in context to all interactions between sharks and people. They recommend using words like “incidents,” “bites” or, “a negative encounter". But, a few people who have encountered sharks aren't pleased with the word replacement. 

Australia's researchers take on shark 'attack'

According to researchers, movie depictions of bloodthirsty sharks stalking and eating swimmers have given the ocean predators a bad rap.  Leonardo Guida, a shark biologist with the Australian Marine Conservation Society, said that the attendees at a May shark symposium were told the government of Queensland, one of six states in Australia, was for the first time replacing the word “attack” as a catchall to describe every shark-human interaction. The state of New South Wales has also started describing shark 'attacks' as 'incidents' or 'interactions'. 

Researchers argue that the word change was overdue for a long time as using “attack” to describe every case is inaccurate and can lead to emotional, knee-jerk reactions not rooted in science.

Chris Pepin-Neff, a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney, stated that about 40 percent of human-shark incidents involve no injuries at all and are merely sightings. Often the sharks are usually exploring even when they do bite someone. 

He added that sharks aren't the bloodthirsty monsters trying to gorge themselves on human flesh as portrayed in movies. 

Leonardo Guida said, “Sharks are very curious animals. They tend to have exploratory bites … and unfortunately — and sometimes tragically — us humans are quite soft". 

Referring to the wrong usage of the word for sharks' interaction with humans over the past half-century, Pepin-Neff said that it's rare for sharks to bite people, and a shark trying to eat a person is almost unheard of. 

He added, "The whole arena of shark-bite politics is manipulative. Something terrible happens, and politicians make it worse by using hyped-up … language that describes sharks as movie monsters.”

According to BBC News, a recent study determined the number of sharks found in the open oceans plunged by more than 70 percent in the past 50 years, and three-quarters of species are threatened with extinction, mainly because of commercial fishing.

Pepin-Neff further said, 'Hyped-up' language wasn’t always the norm. Run-ins between people and the 400 million-year-old animals used to be called “shark accidents,” until a prominent surgeon in Sydney received correspondence from the United States urging him to warn the public of the possibility of “shark rabies".

According to a study Pepin-Neff co-wrote in 2013 that was published in the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, in a 1933 article, the doctor concluded the “evidence that sharks will attack man is complete". 

Researchers message to the public

In a research study, Pepin-Neff said that sharks wanted to eat humans. But none of it was true, he said, and while exaggerations in Hollywood movies are expected, government officials were perpetuating the myth.

He added, “You’ve got to tell people the truth; they’re being misled". He further thought it was unlikely people would stop describing encounters as attacks, 

But Pearson, the Bite Club spokesman, informed that while he understands the need for more precise language, sometimes you have to call something that it is.

He added, “If we play down the severity of someone’s experience, it can disregard their trauma". 

(Image credit: GEERALD/UNSPLASH/REPRESENTATIVEIMAGE)

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Published July 17th, 2021 at 13:04 IST

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