![]() If you’re surfing, track the shark with your board, Lowe said. Then slowly back up toward your exit to a boat or shore. Hammerschlag concurred, saying you should posture your body toward the shark so it knows you see it and you’re following it. “If you’re turning around and facing it the whole time while it circles you, it’s not going to be half as comfortable as if it’s able to sneak up from behind.” “Sharks are ambush predators,” Peirce explained. “A lot of people who have been bitten actually said they had a weird sensation before that, like they had an inner voice telling them to get out of the water and they didn’t listen to it,” he said.Īs the shark swims around you, keep your head on a swivel and try to maintain eye contact. “If you feel wary about getting in the water … just don’t go in the water.” “Probably the most important thing is to follow your gut,” Hammerschlag said. “And you don’t want your hand or foot to get confused with that.” In murky water, a shark may think that flash is a sign of a meal. “Be careful with jewelry, anything that flashes because sharks are always looking for fish.” Lowe said. “I always recommend people go to guarded beaches. If you have any questions, ask a local lifeguard. Bone up a little bit on species you might encounter in different places. PASCAL POCHARD-CASABIANCA/AFP/AFP via Getty ImagesĬhris Lowe, professor in marine biology and director of the Shark Lab at California State University, Long Beach, advises to “do your homework” before you go into unfamiliar waters. 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 “If you’re going to the ocean, you have to assume you could encounter a shark regardless of when or where that is,” said Neil Hammerschlag, director of the Shark Research and Conservation Program at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School.Ī bull shark gets up close to inspect divers during an ecotourism shark dive off of Jupiter, Florida, on May 5, 2022. The ocean is their home we are the visitors. That said, you can take steps to increase your chances of survival during a highly improbable attack, according to shark experts interviewed by CNN Travel. In 2022, the United States led the way in unprovoked attacks at 41 Florida had the highest state total at 16. Your chances of drowning are much, much higher. Many of those live near or vacation at the coast. Think about it a minute – the world population is more than 8 billion people. The Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File found only 57 confirmed, unprovoked shark bites on people and 32 confirmed, provoked bites in 2022 worldwide. The chances of being attacked by a shark are extremely low despite the headlines. While these kinds of encounters understandably cause would-be ocean swimmers to worry, there’s no need to panic about your upcoming beach vacation. A shark attacked a woman from Connecticut while she was snorkeling at a resort in Turks and Caicos on May 24.A Russian citizen was killed by a shark in the Red Sea in Egypt on June 8.A teenager was bitten by a shark on the foot in early July as he was surfing off the coast of New York’s Fire Island.Rockaway Beach Park in Queens, New York, was closed to swimming and surfing on August 8, one day after a woman was hospitalized after suffering an apparent shark bite.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 – and they certainly make news when they do:
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