Great White Shark Sightings Off New York and New Jersey Coasts Spark Fears Ahead of Summer Beach Season

Great white shark sightings off the coasts of New York and New Jersey have sparked fears ahead of the summer beach season, local sources reported. Summertime will officially begin on Thursday, June 1. This also means that the number of American beachgoers will increase from the West Coast to the East Coast, yet the primary threat is on the latter.

However, a spate of recent attacks in Florida, Hawaii, and New Jersey also fuels existing fears of great white sharks, according to reports. Local authorities are on the lookout, as previous related cases were met with temporary beach closures, ocean monitoring, and issuance of warnings. Still, the heightened fears reportedly remain the same.

Last year, similar shark-related incidents have been reported in different parts of the East Coast. Marine experts previously highlighted that warm waters attract the prey of sharks closer to shore, forcing the ocean predators to do the same and follow them. Some scientists blame climate change and global warming for the said marine ecological disturbance.

Great White Shark Sightings

(Photo : Image by Sarah Richter from Pixabay)

Over the past month, the great white shark sightings leading to the Memorial Day holiday involved five great white sharks and were detected in the waters off New York and New Jersey by OCEARCH, a non-profit marine research organization, the Independent U.K. reported.

OCEARCH reported that four male and one female white shark roamed the waters off the East Coast. The confirmation was based on the organization's use of electronic tracking devices on the sharks to determine their migration patterns.

Also Read: Protected Fishing Areas Allow Great White Sharks to Grow up to 20 Feet Long and Tiger Sharks to 16 Feet

Recent Shark Attacks

As mentioned earlier, shark attacks were reported in different parts of the nation, wherein some were also covered by Nature World News.

Earlier in May, a fisherman captured on video a shark attack on his kayak, which almost overturned in deep waters off the Hawaiian coast.

Almost two weeks ago, a teenager survived a shark attack while surfing with the waves off the New Jersey coast, CBS News reported.

In another incident last week, an angler in Florida was bitten in the foot by a shark after it was hooked and got out of the water into the dock, CNN reported.

U.S. Shark Attack Statistics

In 2022, the U.S. recorded the highest number of unprovoked shark attacks with 41 confirmed cases, according to the Florida Museum's 2022 International Shark Attack File (ISAF).

Across the country, Florida ranks no. 1 with 16 cases, and it is followed by New York with eight, Hawaii with five, California with four, South Carolina with four, North Carolina with two, Alabama with one, and Texas with one.

In 2018, a study reported by the University of Washington found that great white sharks prefer warmer ocean waters and not cold ones, which surprised scientists. The study found that sharks are inclined to spend more time in warm waters than previously thought.