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Gulf Shark Bites Map — 2016–2026

Geographic coverage: Gulf of America / Gulf of Mexico — United States and Mexico.
Period: 2016–2025 complete years + 2026 year-to-date (updated August 16, 2026).

This interactive map covers documented human-shark injury incidents from 2016 through 2025, plus 2026 year-to-date around the Gulf.

The main data source is the Global Shark Attack File (GSAF). Provoked incidents are shown separately from unprovoked bites, and questionable cases are clearly labeled.

A historical marker does not indicate current shark activity or current beach danger.

Interactive Map

Click a marker for the date, location, activity, injury, classification and species information when available.

Shark bite
Fishing / handling incident
Other shark-injury event
Unconfirmed / questionable
How to read the map: Red markers show documented unprovoked shark bites. Orange markers show incidents associated with fishing, hooking, catching or handling a shark and should not be interpreted as the same risk faced by ordinary swimmers. Gray markers show reports where shark involvement is uncertain or not fully confirmed.

Documented Incidents

DateLocationRegionCountryClassificationActivityInjurySpecies
Methodology: This page uses the current public GSAF incident log as its baseline and filters for human-injury incidents from 2016–2026 on the Gulf coastline. Watercraft-only incidents with no human injury are excluded. Provoked bites — for example, a hooked or captured shark biting a fisherman — remain visible but are not presented as equivalent to unprovoked bites. Where an exact location is not given in the source data, the map marker is deliberately approximate.

What About Mexico?

Mexico is included. In the current GSAF records matching this 2016–2026 Gulf-only scope, the identified Mexican Gulf Coast cases are provoked fishing incidents in Tamaulipas and Tabasco. Incidents on Mexico’s Pacific coast, the Gulf of California and the Caribbean coast are outside this map’s geographic scope.

Shark Bites Are Rare

Sharks are naturally present throughout Gulf waters. Even so, bites involving people remain uncommon relative to the enormous number of swimmers, surfers, anglers and divers who use Gulf waters every year. This map is historical and should not be used as a real-time risk map.

Data Sources

Primary dataset: Global Shark Attack File (GSAF) public Incident Log. Recent high-profile incidents were also cross-checked against official agencies and reputable reporting where possible.

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