Shark sightings are on the rise along both the East and West coasts as Americans flock to beaches to cool off.
In Hawaii, a tiger shark was recently spotted swimming just 30 yards from an island’s breakwater along the south shore of Oahu, prompting authorities to install warning signs, Island News reported.
The Honolulu Department of Emergency Services classified the 12-foot-long shark, which was spotted around noon on June 27, as “non-aggressive.”
Tiger shark spotted off Hawaii coast, warning signs posted on beaches
As shark sightings and attack warnings surge in some U.S. states, here are 12 unique facts about sharks, including their populations and sizes.
Sharks are considered to be marine fish with long bodies with cartilaginous skeletons and prominent dorsal fins. (iStock)
1. How many species of sharks are there?
According to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, there are more than 500 species of sharks known to live in the world’s oceans.
2. World Shark Populations
According to the online animal encyclopedia AZAnimals, marine experts estimate the total shark population to be around one billion.
“This means that there is one shark for every seven to eight humans,” the encyclopedia noted in July 2022. “Sharks are found in every ocean around the world and in nearly every marine habitat, including the open ocean, deep seas, coral reefs, shallow waters, and under the ice of the Arctic.”
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Read on for more facts about the species of fish, the circumstances of the attack, how many teeth the shark has, and more. (iStock)
3. The largest shark species currently in existence
Whale sharks are the largest living shark species. The maximum size of a whale shark is unknown, but according to the World Wildlife Fund, it can reach as much as 65.6 feet.
Whale sharks live in warm coastal waters around the world. (iStock)
According to a 2018 study by the Guy Harvey Research Institute at Nova Southeastern University in Florida and the Maldives Whale Shark Research Program, the world’s largest whale shark on record was 61.7 feet long.
4. The smallest shark currently in existence
According to the National Museum of Natural History, the dwarf lantern shark averages eight inches in length, making it the smallest living shark species.
The species is “smaller than a human hand” and has “only been observed a few times” in depths between 928 and 1,440 feet in northern South America, according to the museum.
Ohio tourist bitten by shark while playing football in knee-deep water on Florida beach
5. How strong are a shark’s jaws?
Great white sharks have one of the strongest bite forces in the world. Experiments conducted by Australian paleontologist Stephen Rowe in 2008 found that a 7,328-pound great white can exert about 4,095 pounds of force from its powerful jaws, according to a study published in the Journal of Zoology.
Great white sharks are found in almost every coastal and offshore water in the world. (iStock)
6. How many teeth does a shark have?
Most shark species have five rows of teeth, according to Delta Dental of Washington, a dental insurance company.
Delta Dental in Washington state reported in a Shark Week blog post that some shark species can “have as many as 3,000 teeth at any one time” and “lose up to 100 teeth per day.”
7. How many shark attacks have occurred in the past year?
According to the Florida Museum of Natural History, there were a total of 69 random shark attacks worldwide in 2023.
Surfing and board sports participants accounted for 42% of all accidents, swimmers and wader participants accounted for 39% and snorkelers and free divers accounted for 13%.
Shark spotted darting along Texas coast before series of bites
In 2021, warning signs were installed at Newcomb Hollow Beach in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, warning of great white shark bite incidents. (Lindsay Nicholson/Universal Images Group via Getty Images | iStock)
8. How many shark attacks have occurred in the past five years?
According to the Florida Museum of Natural History, from 2018 to 2022, the average number of random shark attacks on humans was 63.
9. What are the chances of dying from a shark attack?
According to National Geographic, your chances of being killed by a shark are 1 in 3.7 million.
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10. How many sharks are killed each year?
A new study suggests that around 100 million sharks may be killed each year, primarily for their fins — a practice that affects many different shark species, including whale sharks, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
There are hundreds of known shark species. (iStock)
11. How long have sharks been around?
According to the Natural History Museum in London, sharks have been around for 450 million years.
The finned animals appeared in the fossil record before there were trees, and sharks have survived five mass extinctions, according to the museum.
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12. What is the largest shark species in the world?
The extinct megalodon is believed to be the largest shark species the world has ever known, and a 1909 reconstruction of its jaws by American paleontologist Bashford Dean estimated that it could have grown to a maximum length of 98 feet, according to fossil specimen provider Fossil Era.
In this March 16, 2011 photo, children look at the jaws of Megalodon, a prehistoric shark, at the Dallas Museum of Natural Sciences. The jaw is 11 feet wide, nearly 9 feet tall and is made up of 182 teeth collected from a river in South Carolina. (AP Photo/Rich Matthews)
In recent years, scientists have lowered Dean’s estimate to 68.6 ft. Although a complete skeleton has yet to be discovered, Megalodon teeth have been frequently found around the world.
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According to the Natural History Museum in London, megalodon became extinct 2.6 million years ago, at the end of the Pliocene epoch.
