Everywhere you look right now it's shark, shark, shark... Take a look at the headlines lately: "Fifth shark sighting in 30 days", "Surfers leave water after second shark sighting", "Beaches closed amid calls for killer shark to be found and destroyed‎". Anyone would think that sharks are some kind of new super plague that are on a mission to rid the world of surfers, stand up paddlers and kiteboarders.

There's even 5 separate threads running on the Seabreeze kitesurfing forums about it, and that's just on the front page! Thankfully the stand up paddling community doesn't seem too phased by the so called 'shark epidemic'; but you can be sure that it's on a lot of peoples minds as they squeeze into their wetsuits this spring. 

Last week a man in his 20s was unfortunately killed while bodyboarding with friends at Bunker Bay, near Dunsborough, in Western Australia. Since then, a wave of panic and anxiety has swept around the Australian coastline, the forums are a buzz with sightings and close encounters andthe nightly news is headlining every shark related story they can find, but at the end of the day - how much of a threat are these big fish really? 

Here's a few little facts to put the whole thing in perspective...

Over the last 10 years, there's been 14 fatalities in Australia caused directly by shark attacks. This number in surprisingly low, especially when compared to the all too common car accident fatalities, which come in at approximately 16,000 deaths over the same period. This means you're over a thousand times more likely to die in a car accident. 

The most likely state to be killed by a shark is Western Australia, where 5 out of 14 fatalities took place in the last 10 years . Three of these deaths were the result of a great white shark, the other two accused sharks could not be identified, but are believed to be white pointers. 

Call sharks sexist, but only one of the 14 people killed this decade was a woman. Sarah Whiley, 21, was mauled by up to three bull sharks in QLD during 2006. Despite the fact that around 30% of the surfers in Australia are chicks, only 7% of the people killed have been girls. Maybe sharks have a thing for guys - or maybe they just like people who pee in their wetsuits... 

And finally, the coconut story - you know; you're more likely to die from being hit in the head by a coconut, than you are by getting eaten by a shark... Well, it's not actually true. There's a great story by Cecil Adams floating around on the internet that proves that the coconut statistic was completely untrue. The original story was that 150 people die every year from falling coconuts, but unfortunately that statement simply cannot be proven. What can be proven, is that lots of people die every year from falling out of coconut tree's themselves, but seriously - if you don't want to fall out of a coconut tree, don't climb up one! 

So, at the end of the day - yes, there are more sharks in the water than there were 20 years ago. Yes, you are more likely to be killed by a shark than you are by a falling coconut , and yes - if you go stand up paddling, surfing or kitesurfing - there's every chance you could possibly see, touch or get eaten by a shark.

Will it happen? Well, they don't call these sports 'extreme sports' for nothing, and as forum user Poor Relative says: "I wouldn't worry about it. Its the ones you don't see that'll get you."

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