Why are Shark Attacks on the Rise
8. New Hunting Grounds
Shifting oceanic temperatures and changing habitats mean new hunting grounds for sharks and significant problems for humans. Blacktip sharks, which mainly hang out in the Gulf of Mexico and the Florida Keys, are migrating up the coast to North Carolina, following the cooler waters and- most likely- their favorite prey.
Since blacktip sharks stretch to six and a half feet long, or roughly as long as your average NBA player is high, they certainly make their presence known and can disrupt the whole ecosystem, as well as create a very inhospitable environment for humans. Blacktips aren’t the only sharks on the move.
Nature’s most infamous apex predator, the great white shark, is making waves by hunting closer and closer to the shore. Great whites have been spotted trawling for prey right off the beaches of Point Judith, Rhode Island, a popular spot that families to flock to for summer fun.
The more these sharks pop up in unusual places, the more likely a deadly encounter will occur, especially when you consider the fact that sharks these days have very little fear of venturing into the shallows.
7. La Nina
La Nina is a weather phenomenon that causes below-average surface temperatures in equatorial waters across the Pacific Ocean’s tropical regions. It happens every handful of years and essentially consists of a specific wind pattern that blows warmer surface waters towards Indonesia and away from South America.
This causes cooler waters to rise near the continent. With the changing seas, marine life patterns inevitably start to shift. Some people confuse La Nina with her counterpart, El Nino, but the two are actually quite different.
El Nino makes the seas warmer, whereas La Nina chills them out. Both can and do, wreak havoc on the way sea creatures operate.
La Nina’s cooler waters send some shark species scrambling towards the shores in search of balmy waves, which is where we humans run into huge trouble. Bull sharks, a notoriously aggressive breed of shark responsible for scores of attacks on humans, typically gravitate towards the shore, and certainly did during 2020’s La Nina.
In addition to seeking out warmer waters, bull sharks were also following their food source, salmon. La Ninas don’t just drive predators towards the coastlines; they push prey fish shoreside as well, making these weather events perfect storms for human and shark interactions.
Fortunately, wacky weather like La Nina only lasts between nine months to a year, so the sharks should start to migrate back out into open water until the next one, but while La Nina is in effect, beware of dipping a toe into the sea.
You might not pull it back out.
6: Overfishing
Overfishing happens when humans seriously deplete or even completely decimate a certain species of fish.
This greedy grab for seafood causes a rift in the food chain and can seriously hurt other animals in the process. Overfishing can happen anytime, but it usually occurs if there’s a specific delicacy in high demand.
Stylish fish like monkfish, halibut, and blue-fin tuna are all in danger of being overfished at the moment. This trend also puts sharks and humans dangerously close together, competing for the same food source in the same waters.
Additionally, overfishing can cause starvation in some shark species, prompting them to seek out alternative food sources… who knows what that could be. Sadly, it’s not just the sharks that are suffering; dolphins and other large marine animals also pay the cost of our human appetite for oceanic delicacies.
While overfishing itself is a problem, some shark species are getting tangled in fishing nets or coming face to face to human fishers as our two species scramble for a limited variety of food. In the battle between humans and hungry sharks, the sharks will almost always prevail, and dozens of fishers get into deadly scrapes with these massive marine mammals every year.
5. Humans
On The Menu Repeated attacks on humans suggest one spine-chilling thing- that Steven Spielberg might have been right in his epic horror film Jaws; the sharks are out for human blood! This controversial concept is fringe science at best, with many experts claiming that accidental bites only occur because humans look like seals, especially when we are on our surf boards.
Others claim that sharks are curious creatures who will “mouth” a swimmer to see what it is, but there are some who think that 2020’s unprovoked bites suggest an alarming trend- that the sharks have found a new favorite meal.
The Taronga Conservation Society of Australia tracks shark bites, and it looks at instances of unprovoked shark bites. Although a single bite isn’t cause for alarm… unless you’re in the water that is… multiple bites by the same shark could indicate that the big beast was seeing us as prey.
Several of the sharks documented apparently hung around their unfortunate victims after dealing the first blow, which leads experts to believe that they knew exactly what they were chomping into… and they liked it.
Whether or not sharks are really developing a taste for people remains to be seen, but there is some precedent. Catfish sometimes drown victims or feast on corpses, so why should the sea’s top predator be any different?
4. COVID-19
The 2020 OVID-19 pandemic forced all of us to hunker down at home, and some people developed a renewed love for the great outdoors, specifically the beach. While getting your Vitamin Sea during the worst health disaster of our time might be good for the mind and soul, it does put you more into harm’s way.
With more human surfers and swimmers flocking to the shores to enjoy their staycations, there’s a greater risk of shark and human interactions, specifically in Western Australia, which is already known for having some of the world’s most terrifying animals, including shudder-inducing sea dwellers. As opposed to skipping off to the balmy beaches of Bali, Australians are staying close to home and exploring the coasts of their unique continent, providing ample opportunities for them to run into: tiger sharks, oceanic whitetips, and even great white sharks.
Two people were tragically killed this year alone in the land down under; Gary Johnson was mauled while diving and Zach Robba was tragically killed near the Great Barrier Reef.
3. Sheer Bad Luck
Bad luck and chance play a huge role in how many humans wind up on the business end of a shark’s jaws, and some years are just worse than others.
In 2020, dead whales washing up on Europe’s shores sparked increased shark activity close to the coastline, and bathers in these seas ran a much higher risk of running across an opportunistic shark looking for a quick meal.
Sometimes there doesn’t even need to be a whale or other larger prey involved. Occasionally, the attacks occur in remote areas where there isn’t immediate access to medical attention. In 2020, many hospitals were clogged with COVID-19 patients, and there were fewer resources available for people who ran afoul of sharks.
Realistically, most shark attacks aren’t fatal, and will more likely mentally… or maybe physically… scar you for life rather than put you six feet under, but in years where luck isn’t on our side, help could be too far out of reach.
2. Warmer Oceans
Warmer oceans are one big reason why shark attacks are spiking, and climate change, in general, has a huge domino effect on how all marine life acts and interacts with humans. Warm waters affect shark migration, sending them far into uncharted territory and making them pop up in places where we least expect them. Balmy seas are also changing the migration patterns and longevity of other sea species and where the prey goes, the sharks go. The ocean has heated up nearly .
13 degrees Fahrenheit every single decade for the last 40 years. While that might seem like a drop in the salty bucket, it has huge ripple effects throughout the seven seas. Higher water temperatures cause major problems for coral reefs, making them bleach and die off, and sending their inhabitants swimming towards the shore.
As their food supply moves closer to land, the predators follow; straight up to some of the most populated beaches in the world. As our ocean temperatures increase, expect more mayhem and disruption along the sea food chain, starting at the bottom and working all the way up to the top. As apex predators like sharks, and people collide in the changing seas, more shark attacks are bound to occur.
1. Population Increase
The U.S. coastal regions are experiencing an unprecedented boom, swelling by tens of millions of people as citizens head to the shore. This trend is duplicated in many other areas of the world, as populations grow exponentially and all of those new humans seek out their little slice of sunshine and sea. These numbers don’t take into account the millions of vacationers who visit beaches around the world every year. With more people, come more shark attacks. In a way, this trend makes total sense, but it also forces us to look at our data. We need to balance the number of shark attacks with an increased amount of people visiting and living on beaches to get a realistic view. Even with more shark attacks happening all across the world, there’s still a very small chance that your casual bather or snorkeler will swim across one of these powerful predators while on vacation. Even those unlucky enough to cross paths with the sea’s most fearsome carnivores will probably live to tell their big fish tale. Thanks for watching! Would you fancy your chances more versus a great white or versus a school of piranhas?
