The Shark Research Committee is documenting White Shark, Carcharodon carcharias, predatory events, encounters, and interactions with humans along the Pacific Coast of North America. These are ongoing research projects which began in 1960. If you would like to voluntarily assist in one or more of these projects, please contact the Shark Research Committee or select the appropriate on line form below to report your incident. The data collected will be catalogued in our existing data base files. Volunteers that provide data for these current research projects will be acknowledged upon the publishing of the data in a science journal or other periodical. Results from the previous four decades of shark attack research have been published in “Shark Attacks of the Twentieth Century: from the Pacific Coast of North America.” Many thanks for your participation.
A shark aggressively pursues and/or strikes a human without any known provocation or offensive gestures on the part of the human. Any physical contact between a shark and a human, or a piece of equipment being utilized in an ocean activity by the subject, constitutes an unprovoked shark attack. If an impending attack is only avoided by evasive maneuvering, this too shall be classified as an unprovoked shark attack. Physical injury to the victim is not necessarily the only criteria used in determining an unprovoked shark attack.
A human is approached by a shark, which leisurely circles and/or slowly swims past the subject without any aggressive behavior being exhibited by the shark. There is never any physical contact between shark and the subject in a Shark Encounter. They are non-violent. The shark's movements are usually described as "smooth and methodical." These types of encounters have been described by divers as "being checked-out by a shark."
A natural feeding event consists of a White Shark pursuing, capturing and/or consuming a live natural prey, such as a fish or a marine mammal. Along the Pacific Coast, carrion feeding upon dead whales by White Sharks is frequently observed and photographed. Either of these two examples is considered a predation event and is the information being sought for White Shark predations. Baiting or chumming of a White Shark to a specific location is not considered a natural feeding event for purposes of this study.
If you would like to voluntarily participate in the White Shark Predation or Shark/Human Interactions Research Projects please select the appropriate link above. Upon submision of these forms the sender acknowledges that the contents shall become the property of Ralph S. Collier and the Shark Research Committe for their ongoing white shark and shark/human interactions research projects. If you require any additional information please e-mail the Shark Research Committee at sharkform.
Thank You
