Scientists solve mystery of why America is becoming the “world capital of shark attacks”

After a series of gruesome shark bites in Florida, Texas, New York and California, the USA has become the world capital of shark attacks.

Although Australia has a reputation as a hotspot, more than half of the 69 confirmed shark bites worldwide last year occurred in the United States.

These numbers, along with increased media attention surrounding the attacks in America, have led many to question whether sharks off our coasts are somehow becoming more aggressive.

Former President Donald Trump has theorized that the increase in battery-powered boats is causing people to be attacked by sharks. Other experts have theorized that global warming and rising sea levels may be changing the predators’ behavior.

However, experts told DailyMail.com that the cause was a mix of an excess of fish migrating to the coasts and environmental conditions, while other experts said the cause was American efforts to clean up the seas.

Over the Fourth of July weekend, a 14-year-old was attacked while training to be a lifeguard in Florida. When Dempsey Manhart jumped into the water, he landed on a shark, which bit him on the leg and then swam away.

The teenager was taken to hospital, where the wound had to be closed with 17 stitches.

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Many experts believe that U.S. efforts to reduce marine pollution have changed sharks’ hunting behavior, moving them closer to land-based waters that were previously unattractive to sharks due to high levels of pollution.

In some states, such as New York, conservation efforts to clean rivers that flow into the sea have resulted in less polluted and dirty water entering the sea and a recovery in marine life.

“Seeing sharks in our local ecosystem is extremely important and a sign that the environment around us is healthy,” said Chris Paparo, a shark expert at Stony Brook University on Long Island, in a series of Twitter videos.

But professors Oliver Shipley and Michael Frisk of the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook told DailyMail.com that there is no specific reason why the sharks swim so close to the shore.

“It’s not a clear cause-and-effect scenario,” Shipley said.

“This is an extremely complex issue and we need to be very careful about blaming single causes such as pollution for the fact that we see more of certain animals in certain areas than before.”

Shipley said: “I don’t think the number of incidents is higher in the U.S. because sharks are more aggressive here compared to other places. I think other demographic factors may play a role.”

According to the University of Florida’s International Shark Attack File report, the number of shark attacks in the United States decreased last year, with only 41 shark attacks recorded in 2022. However, this contradicts the idea that bites are becoming more frequent.

Shipley and Frisk do not rule out this theory, but state that there is no conclusive evidence that pollution contributed to the sharks’ proximity to shore.

More than a decade ago, fisheries authorities issued regulations to protect the dwindling shark population.

The Shark Conservation Act of 2010 banned shark finning – a business in which sharks are caught and their fins removed before being thrown back into the sea.

“Are there more sharks today than there were five or 10 years ago? Absolutely,” Tobey Curtis, a fisheries management specialist with the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), told Vox. “We have been managing and protecting shark populations since 1993.”

Despite this report, Frisk and Shipley said the shark population has not increased dramatically in the last 30 to 50 years and that shark attacks are more likely to occur where schools of fish congregate.

In 2019, a 19-year-old was vacationing on the Texas coast when she was attacked by a shark and fought off the predator with a punch to the nose. In another incident in 2022, a man needed stitches in his leg after a shark attack in California.

Some of the sharks that have apparently attacked humans are quite docile, such as sand tiger sharks. However, if a human and a shark were to collide, there would be a risk that the swimmer could be bitten.

“All in all, it could be that you just came into contact by chance and they think you are part of their feeding system,” Frisk said.

Florida and California have the highest number of attacks in the United States each year, likely due to the larger number of people swimming in these regions and the longer time people spend swimming in the ocean during the year.

The International Shark Attack File shows that great white sharks, tiger sharks and bull sharks killed the most people in 2023. However, the higher number of deaths is due to more people being in the ocean each year and more reporting of bites and deaths.

These reports directly contradict former President Donald Trump’s false claims that boat batteries are the cause of shark attacks on humans.

The 2024 presidential candidate raised the issue of shark attacks at a campaign rally in Nevada last month after expressing concern that electric boats could sink due to their weight and electrocute people on board.

“What would happen if the boat sank due to its weight and you were in it and you had this enormously powerful battery and the battery was now underwater and there was a shark over there about 30 feet away?” Trump said.

“Will I get an electric shock or will I jump over the shark? By the way, there have been a lot of shark attacks lately. Have you noticed?”

However, contrary to Trump’s claims, the Arc Boat Company stated that the batteries were in waterproof containers and had leak detection sensors, “something you don’t normally see in electric cars.”