Over the years, he would get the occasional call from a TV news reporter, saying that their helicopter had spotted groups of sharks in the water – why? “We see lots more sharks on the other side of the plane, so there’s a lot more out there that we’re simply not counting in the survey”, Kajiura said.
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When Blacktips move to Florida, the sharks spread across the stretch of Miami to Jupiter Inlet, occupying a distance of about 80 miles.
Despite the seemingly scary number of sharks in a popular beach destination, Kajiura says there is not much to fear.
Block-cam footage obtained by affixing a camera to a concrete block and placing it in the shallow water ( 2m depth) near shore.
“I go every week form December to April”, Kajiura says.
Last week, the professor once again found himself shooting video, “I was flying along and thought, ‘There are a lot of sharks today; let me post that video”.
As for danger to humans, the International Shark Attack File (ISAF) has documented that the blacktip shark has been responsible for 28 unprovoked worldwide attacks, with some being reported in Florida. According to Dr. Kajiur, black tips are skittish and will usually scatter and swim away when approached. “That was a gross underestimate”.
“They’re not out to get you, you’re not part of their diet, so you may as well go to the beach and enjoy the phenomenon” Kajiura assures. Experts say the sharks aren’t considered to be a huge threat; they’re just migrating for the season, and have little to no interest in humans. The critters would be caught around Riviera Beach, implanted with a transmitter, and released.
The Palm Beach County coastline just north of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is teeming with blacktip sharks. Normally, the sharks are further south in Florida at this point in February. “There are literally tens of thousands of sharks a stone’s throw away from our shoreline”, he told CNN affiliate WPEC.
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“They are responding to environmental cues calling them back to certain habitats to mate and eventually spawn”, said Bob Hueter, director of the Center for Shark Research at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota.
