Shark Attack - explaining the use of Poisson regression

Nothing quite racks havoc on an idealistic summer swim off the Florida Keys quite like a shark attack. Images of an imposing dorsal fin, large “white” teeth and generalized panic aside, how much have shark attacks over the last thirty years influenced the influx of residents on the Florida shoreline? Where would you look for the data? More importantly, which algorithm would a Data Scientist choose to predict the results and why?