Five swimmers are recovering from shark bites in New York, and new video of a huge hammerhead shark near Pensacola beach has gone viral. The uptick of shark encounters have a lot of swimmers wondering what’s really in the water.
The viral video, of what shark experts say is a hammerhead, likely more than 7 feet long, swimming in waist deep water along Navarre Beach coastline, has many wondering what’s going on?
You can see swimmers scrambling to get to the sand, but shark experts say this shark’s behavior around all these swimmers is actually comforting to watch.
“And that’s actually quite reassuring, or it should be, because there were lots of people in the water but yet the shark was meandering around chasing its food baitfish,” Gavin Naylor, Director of Florida Shark Research, said.
Naylor says it’s evident from the video that this huge shark was not interested at all in humans in the area. He says the increase in shark sightings coincides with sharks drawing closer to the shore in search of food.
All five shark bites off the coast of Long Island over the holiday weekend are believed to be the result of mistaken identity.
“The sharks think they’re feeding on baitfish or bunker fish, that’s why these are bites. They weren’t really attacks like you’d see a great white,” Naylor said.
So what about North Florida beaches? Jacksonville Beach Ocean Rescue captain, Rob Emahiser, says the sharks to be concerned about locally are Bull Sharks, Tiger Sharks and the very rare Great White Shark.
OCEARCH hasn’t tracked a white shark off the coast of Florida since last April, when a nearly 1,700 pound shark named Vimy was located off the coast of St. Augustine.
Emahiser urges people to always swim near a lifeguard and be aware of your surroundings.
“If you’re around a pod, of baitfish--well that is food for larger fish. So that’s something simple that everybody can see if you see seabirds diving in a concentrated area that’s usually a pod of small fish. And you would never put your hand in a you know hungry animals food bowl,” Emahiser said.
To reduce your risk of a shark encounter, Emahiser suggests:
- Never swim alone
- don’t swim at dawn and dusk
- Avoid swimming near piers or jetty
- Don’t wear shiny jewelry
- And avoid splashing that’s similar to sound of a struggling fish
“You don’t want to panic and splash because that can trigger a predatory response. If you thrash around, it can either scare or even attract a shark. A fish on the line near the pier is thrashing you know, it’s not unusual for a larger fish to come up and take advantage of that,” Emahiser said.
Shark experts suggest to be careful swimming and standing on sand bars, and drop offs that may be close to shore or out at sea. Sharks like to hang out in these areas, and especially are prevalent around local jetties like Mayport, Matanzas Inlet, and farther south at New Smyrna Beach.