Australian Shark-Incident Database

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<img align="right" src="www/ASIDlogo3.png" alt="ASID logo" width="400" style="margin-top: 20px"> The <em><strong>Australian Shark-Incident Database</strong></em> (ASID), formerly known as the <em><strong><a href="https://taronga.org.au/conservation-and-science/australian-shark-attack-file">Australian Shark Attack File</a></strong></em> (ASAF), quantifies temporal and spatial patterns of shark-human interactions in Australia. <br> <br> The <em><strong>Australian Shark-Incident Database</strong></em> is a joint partnership with <a href="https://taronga.org.au/conservation-and-science/our-contribution">Taronga Conservation Society Australia</a>, along with <a href="http://www.flinders.edu.au">Flinders University</a>, and the <a href="https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au">New South Wales Department of Primary Industries</a> <br> <br> Maintained as an uninterrupted record by a few committed Taronga team members since 1984, the File currently comprises > 1000 individual investigations from 1791 to today, making it the most comprehensive database of its kind available. <br> <br> Principal contacts:<br> - <strong>Dr Phoebe Meagher</strong>, <a href="https://taronga.org.au/education/taronga-institute-of-science-and-learning">Taronga Conservation Society Australia</a> (personal <a href="mailto:pmeagher@zoo.nsw.gov.au">e-mail</a>; ASID <a href="mailto:ASID@zoo.nsw.gov.au">e-mail</a>) <br> - <strong>Madeline Riley</strong> (née Thiele), <a href="https://twitter.com/SouthernSharkEG">Southern Shark Ecology Group</a> & <a href="https://globalecologyflinders.com/">Global Ecology Lab</a>, Flinders University (<a href="mailto:madeline.thiele@flinders.edu.au">e-mail</a>) <br> <br> Accompanies paper published in <em>Scientific Data</em>: <br> <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/madeline-thiele-7704b614a/">MJ Riley</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/phoebe-meagher-471979133/?originalSubdomain=au">P Meagher</a>, <a href="https://www.flinders.edu.au/people/charlie.huveneers">C Huveneers</a>, J Leto, <a href="https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/about-us/research-development/staff/staff-profiles/vic-peddemors">VM Peddemors</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-slip-b539804b/?originalSubdomain=au">D Slip</a>, <a href="https://taronga.org.au/conservation-and-science/our-team">J West</a>, <a href="https://globalecologyflinders.com/people/">CJA Bradshaw</a>. 2022. <a href="http://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01453-9">Data Descriptor: the <em>Australian Shark-Incident Database</em> for quantifying temporal and spatial patterns of shark-human conflict</a>. <em>Scientific Data</em> 9: 378. doi:10.1038/s41597-022-01453-9

Abstract

We describe the <em>Australian Shark-Incident Database</em>, formerly known as the <em>Australian Shark-Attack File</em>, which contains comprehensive reports of 1,196 shark bites that have occurred in Australia over 232 years (1791–2022). Data were collated by the Taronga Conservation Society Australia using purpose designed questionnaires provided to shark-bite victims or witnesses, media reports, and information provided by the department responsible for fisheries in each Australian state (including the Northern Territory). The dataset includes provoked and unprovoked bites from fresh, brackish, and marine waters in Australia. Data span 22 suspected shark species. This dataset will be publicly available, and can be used by analysts to decipher environmental, biological, and social patterns of shark bites in Australia. The information will aid scientists, conservationists, authorities, and members of the public to make informed decisions when implementing or selecting mitigation measures. <img align="center" src="www/ASIDinfographic.png" alt="ASID infographic" width="1000" style="margin-top: 20px">

Code

The R scripts in the <strong><a href="https://github.com/cjabradshaw/AustralianSharkIncidentDatabase/tree/main/scripts">scripts</a></strong> folder recreate plots from the paper: <br>

• <a href="https://github.com/cjabradshaw/AustralianSharkIncidentDatabase/blob/main/scripts/incident.locations.R"><code>incident.locations.R</code></a> creates latitude/longitude location files for importing into GIS software (plot commands not provided here; data for Fig. 2)
• <a href="https://github.com/cjabradshaw/AustralianSharkIncidentDatabase/blob/main/scripts/victim.activity.R"><code>victim.activity.R</code></a> calculates the proportional activities occurring during a bite incident across categories (provoked, unprovoked, fatal, non-fatal) (data for Fig. 3 & 4)
• <a href="https://github.com/cjabradshaw/AustralianSharkIncidentDatabase/blob/main/scripts/injury.R"><code>injury.R</code></a> shows the position of injuries, and proportion of injuries fatal/non-fatal by main species (data for Fig. 5 & 6)
• <a href="https://github.com/cjabradshaw/AustralianSharkIncidentDatabase/blob/main/scripts/period.of.day.R"><code>period.of.day.R</code></a> calculates the period of day (dawn, day, dusk, night) in which an incident occurred (correcting for timezone and location) (data for Fig. 7)

Data for figures

Associated data files (available in the <strong><a href="https://github.com/cjabradshaw/AustralianSharkIncidentDatabase/tree/main/data">data</a></strong> subfolder) to summarise data shown in plots in main textinclude: <br>

• <em>locdat2.txt</em>
• <em>activityDat.csv</em>
• <em>injurydat.txt</em>
• <em>timedb2.txt</em>

Requires the following R libraries

• <a href="https://ggplot2.tidyverse.org/"><code>ggplot2</code></a>
• <a href="https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/dplyr/index.html"><code>dplyr</code></a>
• <a href="https://forcats.tidyverse.org/"><code>forcats</code></a>
• <a href="https://rstudio.github.io/leaflet/"><code>leaflet</code></a>
• <a href="https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/viridis/index.html"><code>viridis</code></a>
• <a href="https://scales.r-lib.org/"><code>scales</code></a>
• <a href="https://github.com/dkahle/ggmap"><code>ggmap</code></a>
• <a href="https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/gridExtra/index.html"><code>gridExtra</code></a>
• <a href="https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/rgdal/index.html"><code>rgdal</code></a>
• <a href="https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/magrittr/index.html"><code>magrittr</code></a>
• <a href="https://tibble.tidyverse.org/"><code>tibble</code></a>
• <a href="https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/ozmaps/index.html"><code>ozmaps</code></a>
• <a href="https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/ggpubr/index.html"><code>ggpubr</code></a>
• <a href="https://www.rdocumentation.org/packages/suncalc/versions/0.5.0"><code>suncalc</code></a>
• <a href="https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/lutz/lutz.pdf"><code>lutz</code></a>

The Database

<a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5612260"><img src="https://zenodo.org/badge/DOI/10.5281/zenodo.5612260.svg"></a>

The Excel workbook '<strong><a href="http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5612260">Australian Shark-Incident Database_Public Version.xlsx</a></strong>' contains the living file that will be updated regularly by collaborators. Note that some information has been removed from the public version of ASID to protect the privacy of relevant persons involved. The column descriptors are as follows:

• <strong> Incident.month</strong>: <em> month of year </em> (numeric, integer)
• <strong> Incident.year</strong>: <em> year written in full </em> (numeric, integer, <em>yyyy</em> e.g., 2007, not 07)
• <strong> Victim.injury</strong>: <em> outcome of victim's health. Categories: fatal, injured, or uninjured. Fatal bites include bites resulting in death to the victim. Injured bites include bites resulting in physical injury to the victim (e.g., bruising, abrasion, punctures, lacerations). Uninjured bites include interactions resulting in no injury to the victim (e.g., shark bit the victim’s equipment; surfboard, fishing rod, kayak). </em> (categorical)
• <strong> State</strong>: <em> Australian State/Territory; abbreviated; categories: WA, SA, VIC, NSW, QLD, NT, TAS </em> (categorical)
• <strong> Location</strong>: <em> closest town and/or beach </em> (descriptive)
• <strong> Latitude</strong>: <em> latitude of incident </em> (numeric, decimal degrees)
• <strong> Longitude</strong>: <em> longitude of incident </em> (numeric, decimal degrees)
• <strong> Site.category</strong>: <em> type of site where incident occurred; categories: river, estuary/harbour, coastal, ocean/pelagic, island open ocean (includes offshore shallow reefs), other; if other write: other: detail </em> (categorical)
• <strong> Site.category.comment</strong>: <em> any other relevant information regarding site description </em> (descriptive)
• <strong> Shark.common.name</strong>: <em> if identified to species, species common name; if identified to family, family group common name; common name should be Australian common names (Last and Stevens 2009); all lowercase, e.g., requiem shark </em>
• <strong> Shark.scientific.name</strong>: <em> scientific name follow CSIRO Codes for Australian Aquatic Biota; capitalise first word only; e.g., Carcharodon carcharias </em>
• <strong> Shark.identification.method</strong>: <em> what information used to identify species; categories: tooth recovered, bite analysis, shark behaviour, DNA analysis, geographical location, direct observation, other; if multiple categories relevant separate by comma; if other write: other: detail </em> (categorical)
• <strong> Shark.identification.source</strong>: <em> source for species identification; categories: witness/victim, government official, researcher, footage, other; if multiple categories relevant separate by comma; if other write: other: detail </em> (categorical)
• <strong> Shark.length.m</strong>: <em> estimated length of shark </em> (numeric, metres, one decimal point i.e., 3.5)
• <strong> Basis.for.length</strong>: <em