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Scientists Look For Patterns In North Carolina Shark Attacks
HughPickens.com writes: The Washington Post reports that there have been seven recent shark attacks in North Carolina. Scientists are looking for what might be luring the usually shy sharks so close to shore and among the swimmers they usually avoid. It's an unusual number of attacks for a state that recorded 25 attacks between 2005 and 2014. Even with the recent incidents, researchers emphasize that sharks are a very low-level threat to humans, compared with other forms of wildlife. Bees, for example, are much more dangerous. And swimming itself is hazardous even without sharks around.
George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida's Florida Museum of Natural History, speculates that several environmental factors could be pushing sharks to congregate in the Outer Banks. It is a warm year, and the water has a higher level of salinity because of a low-level drought in the area. Also, a common species of forage fish — menhaden — has been abundant this year and might have attracted more sharks to the area. Burgess also says some fishermen put bait in the water near piers, which could lure the predators closer to shore; two of the encounters took place within 100 yards of a pier. "That's a formula for shark attacks," Burgess says of these conditions, taken together. "Now, does that explain seven attacks in three weeks? No, it doesn't."
George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida's Florida Museum of Natural History, speculates that several environmental factors could be pushing sharks to congregate in the Outer Banks. It is a warm year, and the water has a higher level of salinity because of a low-level drought in the area. Also, a common species of forage fish — menhaden — has been abundant this year and might have attracted more sharks to the area. Burgess also says some fishermen put bait in the water near piers, which could lure the predators closer to shore; two of the encounters took place within 100 yards of a pier. "That's a formula for shark attacks," Burgess says of these conditions, taken together. "Now, does that explain seven attacks in three weeks? No, it doesn't."
Swim with sharks get eaten, simple.
A shark attack needs a shark and a person. Researching what the sharks are doing differently is fine but it will never be the full picture unless you look at what humans are doing differently too.
It's a hot year as stated; Are more humans swimming than previous years there? Are they swimming at earlier times or later times than usual? I'd bet that even if sharks have abnormal behavior this year that humans do as well.
I found nothing about bees in TFA that was linked; perhaps the article has been edited because it does sound a bit incredible.
The claim that sharks are less dangerous than bees, lightning, or whatever, is a fine example of misleading with statistics. Bees and lightning can strike anyone who walks outside (that is everyone but the most extreme basement dwellers), but sharks are only going to attack people who swim, and while they are swimming.
For a start, I never go into the sea; neither does my wife, son, neighbours, 99.9% of the citizens of the Central African Republic, and I guess most people anywhere. Even of those who do enter the sea, the vast majority must spend a very small percentage of their time in it.
I would submit therefore that the risk of shark attack while in the sea is very significantly higher than that of a bee attack or lighting strike when walking around on land.
Most folks understand that the risk of shark bite is very small. They continue to swim even with the media reports. But when there a multiple shark bites in a relatively small area in a short period of time, and those bites resulted in very serious injuries, it is only natural for a person in that area to hesitate to let their kids in the water. In that case, there helps to be some re-assurance that it is an anomaly or a spike caused by some temporary environmental change, rather than a trend. So it is good that the media is also reporting various attempts to explain the spike.
Shark bites get media attention because that is what people want to read about. Don't just blame the media.