Dire warning!
Sharks attack us because they want to check whether we are food or a piece of waste, says Dr. Petar Kružić from the Faculty of Science and Mathematics in Zagreb.
A shark bit off the leg of a young American woman while she was diving near the Blue Haven resort on the Turks and Caicos Islands, a British overseas territory in the Caribbean, American media reported a few days ago. This is already the 23rd attack by sharks on humans this year, which has sparked discussions about whether the number of bites by these top predators, about which Steven Spielberg made the cult film "Jaws" in 1975, is increasing. Last year, 57 shark attacks were recorded in the world, and in 2021, as many as 71 shark attacks.
- The number of attacks has always varied, although in the last fifty years it has been higher due to the development of tourism and amateur water sports. A good example of this variability is the dr op in the number of attacks during the covid 19 pandemic, when there were fewer tourists at sea. On the one hand, we have a lack of food for sharks, due to unsustainable exploitation, primarily of larger fish such as tuna, and on the other hand are climate changes. Due to the lack of offshore fish species, sharks are increasingly approaching the coast - explains Dr. Petar Kružić, associate professor at the Faculty of Science and Mathematics (PMF) in Zagreb.
- Climate change is changing the range of species, so the tiger shark, although still rare, can enter the Mediterranean Sea. Such arrivals of tropical shark species due to the warming of the Mediterranean Sea will become more and more frequent. One of the reasons for the higher number of attacks is the irresponsibility of swimmers and surfers, who, despite warnings, go to beaches where sharks are known to be nearby. The number of shark attacks in the Adriatic is extremely small, with the only more dangerous species being the great white shark, which has recently become a rare occurrence here. This does not mean that they are not there, but not in large numbers. They are gone because of the lack of their food: the tuna is overfished, and the fur seal appears very rarely due to a drastica lly reduced population in the Mediterranean Sea. In our country, speedboats along the coast are more dangerous than sharks - emphasized Kružić.
Sharks belong to ancient animal species, they appeared about 400 million years ago, and for the last 70 million years they have practica lly not changed. Although people have a distorted perception that sharks are "dangerous monsters", they are crucial to the marine environment.
- Sharks feed on potentially destructive fish populations. Their intervention prevents the explosion of certain types of fish and their taking over a certain place within the food chain. They are often ca lled the 'immunological sys tem of the ocean' - asserted Kružić.
A study published in 2021 in the world's leading scientific journal Nature showed that 71 percent of sharks have disappeared since 1971: 11,000 sharks are k illed every hour, or three every second. Today, sharks are at risk of extinction primarily caused by overfishing, as targeted shark hunting and more commonly "bycatch" during fishing for other species such as tuna and swordfish.
Our interlocutor also explained why sharks attack people.
- They attack because they are hungry and want to check what we are, food or a piece of waste. Unfortunately for us, they can only check it with their mouths, so most bites are accidental. The sea is not a habitat for people, at least not directly. It's up to the sharks, and we're entering their territory. Another reason is territoriality and they attack when they are threatened, although this is a rarer case, because most species run away. Larger individuals of sharks are more curious and can sometimes be dangerous for people - said Kružić.
He emphasized that it is important to know the distribution of dangerous species of sharks such as tigers, bulls, and great white sharks, and to avoid swimming and diving in these areas, especially away from the coast.
- Tourists are mostly warned about these rules. A negative example of this is shark attacks in the Red Sea, where tourists often do not follow the rules and swim in prohibited zones. For tourist diving with sharks, a plan and method of diving is made in advance for safety. A provoked attack can happen while diving, but the divers themselves are to blame for that - concluded Petar Kružić.
Source: Jutarnji List - May 29, 2023.
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