As the summer beach season opens in the United States, at least one expert is predicting an increase in shark attacks around the world this year that will surpass last year’s record number.
“We should have more bites this year than last,” George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida, said in an interview shortly before the Memorial Day holiday weekend that signals the unofficial start of America’s summer vacation – and beach – season.
In 2015, there were 98 shark attacks, including six fatalities, according to Burgess.
Why the increased bloodshed? Shark populations are slowly recovering from historic lows in the 1990s, the world’s human population has grown and rising temperatures are leading more people to go swimming, Burgess said.
Still, the university notes that fatal shark attacks, while undeniably graphic, are so infrequent that beachgoers face a higher risk of being killed by sand collapsing as the result of over achieving sand castle builders.
With their fearsome teeth and dorsal fins the inspiration for hit movies, TV series and beach-town souvenirs, it is hard to believe that a century ago American scientists did not believe sharks would fatally attack humans in U.S. temperate waters without provocation.
That changed in July 1916, when four people were killed in attacks near the New Jersey shore, a series of deaths blamed on a sea turtle until a great white shark with human remains in its stomach was captured nearby.
Continue reading – http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-sharks-idUSKCN0YJ0B6