They really aren't the same year. I promise.

ABC News’, Shark Attacks Rise Worldwide But Drop In the U.S., wouldn’t exactly serve as a benchmark for statistical analysis on annual shark attack incidents. The article attributes a “rise” in global attacks to comparisons of reported attacks from 2008 (60) and 2009 (61). It also seems that the report can’t even distinguish between the 2009 and 2010 incidents, as evidence by the follow excerpt…

“In 2009, there were 61 total shark attacks, five of them fatal, including a 38 year old kiteboarder killed off the Florida coast last month.” – ABC News

Admittedly, I’ve been known to lose track of what day it is. However, I’m fairly certain that 2009 attacks would not include incidents from “last month,” which was February, 2010.

The article also goes on to mention a drop in U.S. attacks. This observation is also based solely on comparisons between overall incident reports between 2008 and 2009. George Burgess offers up a theory on reasons for this “drop,” although the article is polite enough to note that Burgess’ theory (much like the rest of the article) is “based on little scientific evidence.”