Shark attacks: is it safe to go in the water?

To conservationists, the increasing numbers of great whites reported in the waters around Cape Cod is a “success story, a welcome sign of ecosystem recovery at a time when many wildlife species are depleted”, the paper continued.

But this “success story” also “puts large numbers of people in close contact with a fast and efficient megapredator”.

Global increase 

Shark attacks increased globally in 2021 “following three consecutive years of decline”, the Associated Press reported. Data from the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File shows that 73 unprovoked attacks (including 11 fatalities) were reported in 2021, up from 52 in 2020.

Experts noted that 2020 marked a record low, in part owing to the closure of beaches during the Covid-19 pandemic. But Gavin Naylor, the director of the Florida Museum’s shark research programme, also attributed last year’s spike to “expanding numbers of white sharks”. 

Naylor added that the predator’s population recovery was “likely in response to a boom in the seal populations they feed on”. Throughout history, harbour seals have been widely hunted for their skins, oil, and meat, with their populations dwindling as a result. 

But the species has seen a boom in the US since becoming federally protected under the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA).

Protected species

The increase of great white sharks off the coast of California has also been linked to conservation efforts. The sharks become a protected species there in 1994, when the use of gill nets (a commercial fishing method that unintentionally entangled large sea creatures such as sharks, sea lions and dolphins) was also banned. 

Changing climates and weather patterns may impact shark behaviours too.

In 2019, researchers at Sydney’s Macquarie University identified a slight increase in the risk of shark attacks following heavy rainfall. The experts suggested that such rains “flush nutrients into the sea” and create an abundance of fish, seals and other prey that attracts sharks, explained the BBC.

Study co-author Nathan Hart, an associate professor of biological sciences, told the broadcaster that in the future, we could “potentially see an increase or equally a decrease in shark attacks” in response to “changing environmental variables”, as coral reefs, mangrove forests and the other natural habitats favoured by their species are destroyed as a result of climate change.

Article source: https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/environment/955802/are-shark-attacks-on-the-rise