One of the most common topics of discussion among surfers is sharks

Everyone who goes into the water has questions that are relevant to their own unique experience. Some questions may relate to specific locations, seasonality, or other potential behavioral factors that share a common theme: Is it possible to reduce the likelihood of shark encounters?

With my own specific questions in mind I dove through collected shark attack data and set out to find answers related to my experience as a Northern California surfer. What I came away with were some answers that can easily point directly back at the data, while other questions remain elusive and difficult to answer.

My goal with this project is not to produce actionable data to direct people when and where to surf. This is only an exploration of questions that I hope will add to the conversation. It would be wonderful if at the end of this project we could point to information that could help reduce the exposure to sharks and save some lives, however this is very hard to do so definitively. At the end of the day going in the water remains a roll of the dice…

Take a journey through the visualizations created using R, R Studio, and Figma, and see if these help to answer any of your own questions.