Shark attack deaths surge above decade average in 2025

Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research and curator at the Florida Museum of Natural History, said it is too early to determine whether the increase signals a shift.

"Hard to tell," Naylor told Fox News Digital. "Most of the fatalities are in Australia, which may be experiencing both an uptick in some species of sharks and an uptick in surfers exploring new breaks, some of which are quite remote and hard to get to, and an uptick in new ways that humans enjoy water-sports, like foiling."

He said additional years of data will be needed to determine whether 2025 represents the start of a trend.

"We will be able to say more if the trend continues in subsequent years," he said. "For now we cannot exclude the notion that it is a statistical 'blip.'"

ISAF investigated 105 alleged shark-human interactions worldwide in 2025.

The sole fatality in the US was triathlete Erica Fox, 55, whose body was found near Santa Cruz, California, on December 21 after she vanished during a group training swim.

The coroner ruled the cause of death as "sharp and blunt force injuries and submersion in water."

Florida reported more incidents than any other U.S. state, though most cases were nonfatal.

Australia ranked second in total unprovoked bites, representing roughly 32% of incidents worldwide.

While the number of unprovoked bites rose in 2025 compared with the previous year, the total remains within the range observed over the past decade, according to the group's annual summary.

An unprovoked bite is defined as an incident in which a person is bitten in a shark's natural habitat without prior human interaction. Provoked incidents are tracked separately to maintain consistency in reporting and long-term comparisons.