Sharks prefer to eat men, apparently.

Good news, ladies!

Sharks love us. They don’t like men, but they love us.

According to WA Today, pretty much all of the shark attacks EVER have had male victims, except for a few exceptions. Since 1941, Australia has had 1132 recorded shark attacks, 968 of which involved men. Only 64 involved women (and about 100 did not record the gender of the victim).

However, despite us ladies having a better track record with our toothy friends, attacks against women are on the increase. In the last 25 years, 10.2% of shark attacks involved women, as compared to 2.8% between 1940 and 1959.

So, why? Do sharks prefer the taste of boys? Do boys taste like beef and girls taste like flowers? WHAT IS GOING ON?

Basically, it’s because men are more likely to go out in the deep blue sea.

“It reflects a historic pattern of more males engaged in marine aquatic activities, especially those that put humans most at risk, for example surfing, diving, long distance swimming, kayaking, etcetera,” shark expert John West (NOT the tuna guy, just a well-named shark guy) told Fairfax Media.

“It in no way can be attributed to sharks ‘preferring’ males over females. In recent times proportionately more females are being attacked because more females are engaging themselves in riskier, formerly male dominated water activities.”

Now here is a very important thing to know if you are being attacked by a shark:

Strike it. Hit it with all of your strength. Because poking is useless, and will only anger the shark. And you do NOT want an angry shark chomping on you.

Apparently, striking during an attack had the highest rate of effectiveness at around 65%. Kicking, poking and showing aggression were all closer to 30%, and more likely to annoy the shark.

Good to know. Very, very good to know.