Marine biologists have completely overturned the conventional theory behind a series of shark attacks that injured three people in the Florida Panhandle on June 7.
Many believe the sharks were attracted by a large group of killer whales that were spotted on June 4th about 75 miles south of the site of the June 7th shark attack.
The Walton County, Florida, sheriff’s office told USA Today that a single bull shark is believed to have bitten three people over the course of 90 minutes on two beaches less than five miles apart.
But marine biologist Jesús Eric Higuera Rivas doesn’t think it was the same shark.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Higuera Rivas said. Live Science.
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Dr. Greg Skomal, a shark researcher with the Massachusetts Department of Marine Fisheries, takes video footage of a great white shark while a crew listens for a radio tag on October 21, 2022, off the coast of Chatham, Massachusetts. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images)
Higuera Rivas, who works for Mexico’s Private Association for Marine Protection and Conservation, studies orca behavior, including how they interact with other aquatic life.
He told Live Science that the killer whales have probably always been in the area, but have only recently come to attention as summer tourism draws people to the area.
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The same can be said about what he considers to be “unrelated attacks,” Live Science reported.
Essentially, the more activity there is on coastal beaches where bull sharks typically feed, the more likely you are to be bitten by a shark, Higuera Rivas said.
His idea is supported by University of Florida shark expert Gavin Naylor, who told Live Science that Florida’s hot, dry climate is likely a big factor.
On June 7, three people were bitten by sharks within a 90-minute period about four miles off the coast of Walton County, Florida. (Google Maps)
According to the study, Florida, with 1,350 miles of coastline, again led the nation in bites. The percentages in these charts are approximate. (Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File)
Naylor, director of shark research at the University of Florida, said orca-shark conflicts usually happen offshore, giving the sharks a chance to hide or escape.
The bull shark was likely chasing prey fish that were swimming closer to shore than usual due to heat affecting the amount of freshwater outflow from the estuary.
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“Reduced runoff from estuaries causes ocean water to move closer to shore than usual, carrying plankton and the forage fish that feed on it with it,” Naylor told Live Science.
And the tiny bait fish attracted an aggressive bull shark which last Friday bit off the hand of a teenage girl, severely wounded a woman in the abdomen, and left another teen with physical injuries.
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All three victims survived, but the teenage girl lost her left hand and doctors had to amputate her right leg, while the 45-year-old woman also had to have her arm amputated.
They were bitten by a shark along a four-mile stretch of coast in Walton County, Florida, over a period of more than 90 minutes, beginning at approximately 1:20 p.m. on June 7.
