In 1991, Hong Kong Recorded the Highest Numberof Fatal Shark Attacks in the World

With about 80 attacks recorded worldwide each year, shark attacks are a rare occurrence, all things considered. Fatal outcomes are even rarer, averaging around 5 fatalities per year.

In Hong Kong, the most recent recorded attack, which turned out to be fatal, occurred on June 13, 1995, when a 45-year-old woman was attacked by what was believed to be a tiger shark at Clearwater Bay First Beach.

If 1995 was a particularly deadly year, it was not the first time Hong Kong recorded unusually high numbers of fatal shark attacks. Four years earlier, in 1991, three people were killed in shark attacks in Hong Kong.

On June 7, 1991, a woman was killed by a tiger shark at Silverstrand. Then, on June 28, 1991, a man was killed at Basalt Island; before another man was killed the following day, on June 29, 1991, in Sai Kung.

With these three attacks, Hong Kong recorded the highest number of fatal shark attacks for that year. A macabre distinction that Hong Kong would repeat only four years later, in 1995.