Lifeguards might be able to tell you a lot about shark activity on their beach, and more importantly, about rip currents and other drowning threats. “Whether the fishing activity is commercial or recreational, material will often be being discarded, and unwanted dead fish, fish parts and the action of gutting fish are all putting chum in the water and inviting attention from sharks,” he said.Ī lifeguard watches swimmers at the Terre Sacrée beach on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica. Hammerschlag pointed out another area where an encounter is more likely: deeper channels between the shoreline and sandbars farther out.īefore you jump in the sea, have a look around the horizon: What do you see? If you see fishing boats, Peirce says “forget it.” “An awful lot of attacks occur in river mouths, where there is silt and other material in suspension in the river – people washing their clothes, people washing themselves,” said Peirce. Their often-murky waters are a favorite with bull sharks, which are the most likely to attack humans along with great whites and tiger sharks. You should avoid estuaries, said Richard Peirce, an author, shark expert and former chair of the UK-based Shark Trust and Shark Conservation Society. Joseph Prezioso/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images Your chances of drowning are much, much higher.Ī bull shark gets up close to inspect divers during an ecotourism shark dive off of Jupiter, Florida, on May 5, 2022. Many of those live near or vacation at the coast. ![]() Think about it a minute – the world population is nearing 8 billion people. The Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File found only 73 confirmed, unprovoked shark bites on people and 39 confirmed, provoked bites in 2021 worldwide. ![]() ![]() The chances of being attacked by a shark are extremely low. And a beach closure was in place after a woman suffered a shark bite off Southern California’s famed Del Mar Beach on November 4.Īnd while these kinds of encounter understandably strike fear into would-be ocean swimmers, there’s no need to panic about your upcoming beach vacation. First things first: Despite some truly terrifying tales of survival, you are incredibly unlikely to be duking it out with a shark any time soon.īut sharks do occasionally attack humans.įlorida teen Addison Bethea was severely injured this past summer when a shark attacked her in the waters off Keaton Beach along Florida’s Gulf Coast.
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