Last summer, a string of eight shark attacks along the North Carolina coast made headlines across the nation. A Camp Lejeune Marine bitten in the arm and right hand, and another man in his 60’s airlifted to Greenville for multiple bites to his rib cage, hips, lower leg and both hands. Back-to-back unprovoked attacks on Oak Island severely injured a 12 year old girl, and then 90 minutes later, a 16 year-old boy on the same stretch of beach. Both teen’s arms had to be amputated, hers at the elbow and his at the shoulder. Stories like this may make you hesitant to take a dip in the ocean this summer, but local scientists are emphasizing that shark attacks are extremely rare.
“No one could have predicted last year and we cannot use last year to predict this year.”
Dr. Joel Fodrie is an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina’s Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City.
“These attacks are so rare that it’s harder to draw any meaningful trends, there are so many people that go swimming that never encounter a shark that it’s just hard to say that there’s a clear set of conditions that illicit an attack.”
The United States averages 19 shark attacks each year and one shark-attack fatality every two years, mainly in Florida. A far more dangerous scenario involves land based lightning strikes which kill more than 37 people annually.
“So I believe the most recent fatality in North Carolina was over a decade ago, might even be approaching 20 years. And I believe since records have been kept, we’ve had three fatalities in North Carolina.”
There's an average of one to two shark attacks each year in North Carolina, with most bites occurring due to mistaken identity where a shark thinks they’re going after a fish or sea turtle.
While there is no accurate way of predicting shark attacks, scientist can learn from last summer’s events. Ph. D candidate at East Carolina University Chuck Bangley has been studying sharks for seven years. His dissertation work focuses on what shark species are located off our coast as well as their environmental preferences. He says one of the most influential factors affecting their migration habits is water temperature.
“It seems that we have kind of a mix of warm weather and cold weather sharks here. We have a lot of cooler water sharks in New England but they come down here for the winter. And then in the summer, we get sharks that are overwintering down near Florida. So we really sit at this transition zone where at any given time of the year, there’s probably at least one shark species around.”
Since North Carolina is located at a breakpoint between northern and southern fauna, the diversity of environments and water temperature can support more than 50 shark species off our coast. Bangley says he’s observed a warming trend in coastal waters over the last five years. He says temperatures are also heating up sooner in the spring.
“It’s really gotten kind of warm earlier to the point where it’s kind of at almost summer temperatures by the end of May. And certainly that’s what we saw last year and we actually were catching our summer species a full two weeks to a month earlier last year than we did in 2014.”
The warm coastal waters are bringing Atlantic sharpnose sharks and blacktip sharks into the area, along with species we typically associate with bites, like tiger and bull sharks. Scientists, including Bangley, say a heat wave early last summer warmed coastal waters, leading to a higher concentration of sharks along North Carolina beaches. But he points out temperature is not the only factor that influences where sharks migrate.
“The one real big factor that seemed to come into play last year were these schools of bait fish that really piled up in the surf zone. And those bait fish migrate up at around the same time as the sharks do. And you get a lot of other species migrating along with the sharks as well, things like dolphins and sea turtles and other large fish.”
In addition, Bangley says beachgoers flocked to the coast during the heat wave.
“Places like Atlantic Beach, Oak Island, they were all reporting record numbers for that time of year. So you got a situation where there probably was a higher than normal concentration of sharks and other marine life in the water, and definitely a higher than normal concentration of people on the beach and also in the water. ”
Memorial Day, the unofficial start of the summer season, is days away. And again, sharks are making headlines. You may have seen news stories predicting another historic year for shark attacks in North Carolina, but according to Bangley and Fodrie, there is no validation to this theory.
“We certainly don’t have experts in predicting where shark attacks will occur. We’re about as good at predicting a lottery as we are who will be attacked by a shark because both are so rare.”
Dr. Fodrie works sharks, inserting tracking devices on their fins to monitor their movements. He says 20 species are fairly common in North Carolina’s estuarine and near-shore waters, and only a handful are capable of biting a human.
“Most of those species are comprised of reasonably small individuals, about three to four feet. And if you are in the water, within 100 yards or 300 yards, at some point, you have become fully within the distance of one of those sharks, or more.”
While that’s not the most reassuring attestation, Dr. Fodrie emphasizes that the number of shark attacks in North Carolina is remarkably low when you consider the abundance of sharks along our winding 300 mile coastline.
“It’s this rare combination of factors that go into play that allow an interaction like an attack to happen. But the overwhelming, vast majority of the time, those sharks if anything try to stay away from humans rather than key in on them.”
If you’re still not convinced, there are a variety of shark deterrents that use strong magnets to discourage sharks from getting close, and repellant that contains the scent of a dead shark that’s supposed to drive them away. But there’s also common sense steps you can take to avoid a bite.
“If you know there’s a lot of bait in the water be it swimming around, live, natural bait or bait from lots of fishing, bycatch, discards, those are factors that may draw in sharks.”
Practice swimming in groups instead of alone, refrain from excessive splashing, and don’t enter the water if you are bleeding. You may have heard that shiny objects or bright colored clothing can attract sharks.
“So I think that is a better rule for barracuda than perhaps sharks. I don’t think it’s bad advice, I think it makes intuitive sense, but I don’t think we have the ability to say strongly that this is a major factor.”
Dr. Fodrie cautions swimmers to avoid water that is murky. And remember, early morning and evening are prime feeding time for sharks, so it’s a good idea to stay out of the water.
