This is a somewhat misleading statistic as people on average don't spend much time swimming near shark in the ocean. There are probably people who are ~10,000-100,000 times more likely to be killed by sharks than average. due to spending ~100-1,000 times as much time in the ocean and swimming in 10-100x higher risk areas.

PS: On average world wide my guess is the average person spends <1 hour per year in the water as large numbers of people never swim in the ocean and those that do are mostly limited to a few hours a year.

Edit:https://xkcd.com/795/

It's not only about deaths. Injuries (I imagine many are life changing) are important also.

But then I don't think there are that many injuries from shark attacks either.

So what's the point? It's the perceived feeling of safety. People are irrational when they evaluate risks like shark attacks, and for this reason there will be a big market for this even though the risk it mitigates is relatively small.

On the other hand, it might even increase deaths/injuries from sharks as people feel invincible and get closer and more irritating to sharks - moral hazard.

Anyway, just some thoughts typed out as they came to my mind.

My first thought when I saw news about it circulating on social media the other day. From marine biology point of view this project may be interesting, but if you want to save lives... let's just say this is only little more likely than getting struck by lightning and then getting bit by a cobra, so your efforts may be better spent elsewhere.

But then the second thought - from salesman point of view, this is an excellent idea! What better way to earn money than to prey on people's irrational fears? As long as you can say that this suit provably (science!) makes you less likely to be attacked by a shark, you have a goldmine.

It doesn't really matter if the actual occurrence is vanishingly small, what matters is the differential between the consequence of buying the wetsuit and having a shark pass you over (a small number of dollars, hundreds at most), and losing a limb in a shark attack (natural limbs are irreplaceable, prostheses and medical costs will be in the tens of thousands of dollars). That seems like it would make sense for anyone who spends a non-trivial amount of time in the ocean. Most peoples' houses don't burn down, but most people still buy fire insurance.

If the likelihood of me getting bit by a shark is 0.00001%, and the suit reduces that tenfold, I'LL TAKE IT.

And around 100 million sharks are killed each year by the humans.

If anything, we need more shark attacks.