An apparent increase in shark attacks may well have a human cause, with low-cost air travel but also over-fishing and possibly global warming among the hidden suspects, say experts.

Headlines during the week were grabbed by a decision to close beaches in the Seychelles after a shark savaged a British honeymooner before the horrified gaze of his spouse, in the second fatal attack there in 15 days.

In Russia’s Pacific coastal region of Primorye, a shark mauled a 16-year-old boy a day after a man lost his forearms defending his wife. In the Caribbean, a woman vacationing in Puerto Rico received a 30-centimetre shark bite as she swam in a tourist haunt, the bioluminescent bay of Vieques.

According to the International Shark Attack File, compiled at the University of Florida, 79 unprovoked shark assaults occurred around the world in 2010, six of which were fatal.

This was the highest number in a decade, amounting to an increase of 25 per cent on 2009, when there were 63 attacks with six fatalities, and 49 per cent over 2008, which had 53 recorded attacks, four of them mortal.

So far this year, there have been six deaths and seven cases of injuries, according to an unofficial toll compiled by AFP from news reports. Compared to deaths from smoking, road accidents, lightning strikes or even from other animals, the risk is minute, say experts.

“The attention from shark attacks is completely overblown,” said Agathe Lefranc, a scientist with a French group, the Association for the Study and Conserv-ation of Salachians, a category that includes sharks and rays.

Marine biologists say there is little research into the causes of shark attacks but point to several possibilities, all linked to humans themselves.