Map of Shark Attacks Available from Ball State University Libraries

Shark map t-shirt from Threadless

Map Attack: Shark Week Begins on Sunday

This Sunday, July 23, marks the beginning of the 29^th annual Shark Week on Discovery Television.  The network devotes a week of special programming devoted to sharks.  On Sunday the network will air “Phelps Versus Shark: Great Gold Versus Great White,” where Olympic Gold Medalist swimmer Michael Phelps will “race” a shark.

The Ball State University Libraries’ GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) on the second floor of Bracken Library includes numerous maps about the world’s oceans and their habitat, including sharks.  A popular map available in the GRMC is Shark Attacks of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico (above, click to enlarge). 

The map was published by Sealake Products in 2006.  It includes descriptive and historical notes about shark attacks of the last century along the eastern coast of the United States and in the Gulf of Mexico.  The types of sharks are shown for each incident with a date, and the map includes photographs of the sharks and actual-size examples of shark teeth.

Maps from the GRMC circulate for two weeks or longer.  For more information, please contact the GRMC at 765-285-1097.