About

The site

NotABoatAccident.com is an independent explorer of global shark incident data. The name is a nod to a famous line from Jaws — but the resemblance to the film ends there. Every record here describes a real event involving a real person, and the site's goal is factual, respectful documentation: maps, timelines, and aggregations that help people understand where, when, and how shark-human interactions actually happen.

Sharks are not movie monsters. Incidents are rare, fatal incidents are rarer, and the data consistently tells a far less sensational story than the headlines do. This site exists to let you explore that story for yourself.

The data

Incident records are sourced from the Global Shark Attack File, a research archive maintained by the Shark Research Institute. Records are imported regularly and then enriched: locations are geocoded, and original case reports are processed to extract structured details such as species, activity, injury, and environmental conditions.

Each record carries an internal quality score reflecting how complete and well-sourced it is. Important caveats apply to all of it: historical records are incomplete, reporting effort varies hugely by country and era, and the data reflects reported incidents, not true incidence. Treat trends — especially long-term ones — with appropriate skepticism.

If you spot an error in a specific record, use the "Report an issue" option on that incident's page.

The curator

This site is maintained by one person who has been fascinated by sharks since first watching Jaws at around age ten. What began as a child's wide-eyed terror turned into a lifelong interest in the real animals behind the myth — and, eventually, into building this archive so the actual data is as easy to explore as the legend is to repeat.