Photo: Martin Schwartz
Since Jan. 1, there have been 30 confirmed sharks attacks, including one fatality, in the United States, according to multiple outlets citing local officials.
Florida and Hawaii have had the greatest number of incidents, with 15 and seven attacks, respectively.
Numbers include both provoked and unprovoked shark attacks. A provoked attack occurs when a human initiates interaction with a shark (like when spearfishing), leading to an attack, while an unprovoked attack occurs without human provocation of a shark.
The Sunshine State often has some of the highest reported shark attack numbers, even compared to places outside of the U.S.
In 2018, Florida had the highest number of U.S. attacks, making up 24 percent of the world’s unprovoked attack, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History’sInternational Shark Attack File.
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“The only thing that’s peculiar is that people think it’s peculiar,” Gavin Naylor, program director for the Florida Program at the Florida Museum of Natural History, tells PEOPLE about the recent string of attacks at the beach.
New Smyrna Beach, Florida.Getty
What draws the 5 to 7-foot sharks — including blacktip, spinner sharks and juvenile sandbar varieties — so close to shore? Naylor points to the “way that the topography and the beaches are arranged” and how “tides play with the underlying geography.”
“On an outgoing tide, there is lots of murky water and lots of nutrients, and the baitfish come in there,” he explains.
The geography of the beach also draws great waves, according to Naylor, which attracts many surfers. But for the most part, he says, the humans and wildlife coexist.
Often the bites that sharks take there are exploratory and happen when a shark mistakes an appendage for a school of fish, Naylor says. In the aftermath, “The surfer’s got a nasty cut on his foot,” he adds. “Sometimes he gets stitched up, sometimes just bandages, and sometimes these teens will get stitched up and the next day go back again. It’s almost like a badge of honor for many of them — they are quite used to it.”
Although New Smyrna Beach sees more bites than anywhere else, there are rarely fatalities, Naylor points out. And while headlines about the attacks cause alarm each summer, he notes that 2019 attack numbers are on par with past years, both internationally and within the U.S.
“We are completely standard this year, we’re right on target. Usually, we have 80 to 85 unprovoked bites around the world, and this year is an average year,” he says.
Other attacks stateside have taken place in California, Oregon, North Carolina and Georgia.
Stay tuned to PEOPLE.com for continuing shark coverage heading into August and September, when the shark population is highest in some waters.
source: people.com
