I just got from vacation at the beach and I didn't swim in the ocean at all. There were shark warning everyday and two different days swimmers were pulled from the water. It has changed so much from when I was a kid, even 10 years ago when my daughter was 6, But, now at 16 years old, she didn't even go swimming in the ocean. We did walk the beach in the evening and came across a fisherman who said, "He had caught 10 baby sharks, that's the most that he caught in less then an hour period and he had been fishing at Myrtle Beach for years."
So what happened to the to the ocean that has caused so many sea animals to come close to shore?
According to the International Shark Attack File, worldwide there were 88 unprovoked shark with five of them being fatalities in 2017, but researchers maintain that it was an average. But, in South Carolina the shark attacks doubled that year, with a record 10 attacks statewide with at least eight of those attacks were at Hilton Head, South Carolina.
Bryan Fraziers, South Carolina state's marine biologist, suggest that sandbar and black tip shark populations are continuing to increase. But, the increase of the population of people in the world also contributes to the increase of attacks. More people=more attacks.
One thing that has also contributed to what appears to an increase in shark attacks is cell phone that video and snap pictures in real life time, and posting them to social media sites within seconds. So everyone around the world are now aware of shark sighting at Myrtle Beach, or anyone else.
Our fear of sharks aren't actually from the sharks their appearances. The fear comes from how sharks could kill, being eaten alive seems to be a painful was to suffer. It's also the fear of losing control, swimming in shark inhabited water with the possibility that a shark could be in control of your fate.
Looking back at when I was 16 years old, in 1988 World Wide there were approximately 50 shark attacks and the world population in 1988 was 5.1 billion. Compare that to 88 shark attacks in 2017 with a population of 7.5 billion, that is only 33 more attacks but the population has increased 2.4 billion. So the idea of more people equal more attacks holds some merit. But I also believe social media has aided in the idea of a huge increase in shark attacks.
Fear doesn't necessarily match facts, the fear of being attacked is more about our emotional response rather than reality.
