Crucial reasons behind spike in shark attacks and sightings revealed – and it’s linked to Covid pandemic

THIS summer's uptick in shark attacks and sightings is the result of decades of conservation efforts that "collided" during the pandemic, a shark expert has warned.

Chris Fischer, founder of the nonprofit research group OCEARCH, said swimmers are enjoying the liveliest ocean since the 1950s without realizing it after Covid kept many people away from the beaches.

Shark food - mainly menhaden (or bunker) - is more abundant after recent New York and New Jersey restricted fishing with three miles of the shoreline.

The byproduct is more shark sightings close to the beaches and more shark bites in shallow waters; although most of them are what he referred to as "ankle biters."

"This is not a mystery. This is not some sort of radical climate change situation. The ocean is returning to what it is supposed to be," Fischer told The Sun in an exclusive interview.

"It's just that none of us have been alive long enough to have seen the abundance and teeming life in the ocean that we have now, which is really a tremendous success story."

FOUR MOVES THAT SAVED THE SHARKS

Sharks were on the verge of extinction about 50 years ago.

The global abundance of sharks declined 71 percent since 1970, according to a 2021 study in the scientific journal .

The decline could've been as high as 90 percent in extreme cases, according to OCEARCH's Chief Scientist Dr Bob Hueter.

Not coincidentally, the blockbuster movie Jaws was released in the mid '70s, and shark fin soup was a popular cuisine in Asia at the time that required the brutal massacre of sharks, Fischer said.

"After Jaws, everyone went out and was trying to catch or kill every shark they could," he said.

"And because of a skyrocketing demand for shark fin soup, people were capturing sharks, cutting off their fins and dumping the sharks' bodies back in the water so they couldn't swim."

Without the "balance keepers" of the ocean, the oceanic ecosystem began to collapse until the government stepped in and enacted the .

The law set up a moratorium on taking and importing marine mammals, including their parts and products.

That was followed by federal shark protection efforts in the early 1990s and a restriction on miles-long netting that hangs in the water and can indiscriminately catch and kill any animal that swims into it.

The final piece of the conservation puzzle came less than 10 years ago in New York and New Jersey, which set up laws that prevented over fishing of menhaden, which are a shark's main food source.

That allowed the population to return and created huge schools (or clouds) of menhaden in the northeast and lured dolphins into the New York Harbor, Fischer said.

IT ALL COMES TOGETHER IN THE PANDEMIC

These four big moves "collided" during the pandemic, which essentially forced beaches to close for two summers, Fischer said.

"So people might have a little gap in their experience with the ocean during Covid," he said, "and then they've come back to the beach a couple of years later and haven't seen what's been building.

"Especially the menhaden resurgence was really happening during Covid."

And since New York and New Jersey don't allow menhaden fishing in state waters, clouds of these bait fish swarm near the shores and lure predators, like sharks.

They hunt their quick-moving, darting prey pushing them into shallow waters near land to prevent them from diving down or moving to the side.

SHARKS OFF LONG ISLAND SHORES

That's why there have been about a half dozen shark sightings off the coast of Long Island, including a juvenile great white that washed ashore Thursday morning, Fischer said.

"What you're seeing happen right now off the shores of Long Island is the result of decades of conservation work and the recovery of the ocean really starting to succeed," he said.

"We are seeing the return of the Atlantic Ocean into one of the great wild oceans. This is probably one of the greatest management success stories in the world right now.

"It's the greatest gift our generation can give to our kids and grand kids."

SHARK THAT WASHED UP ON LONG ISLAND

There was concern in the northeast - especially lower New York - when a great white shark washed up on the shores of Long Island on Thursday.

Fischer said it's nothing to worry about.

"If I had to guess, I would say it was probably caught by a recreational or commercial fisherman and released, and it just did not go well," Fischer said. "So the shark didn't make it. Nothing to be alarmed about."

The shark that washed up on the shore is not the typical size of a white shark that spends his time in the New York/New Jersey area by what OCEARCH has seen during their studies, he said.

"When we came there in 2016 and 2017, we defined the nursery and tagged about 20 baby white sharks," OCEARCH's founder said.

"They were about four to five and a half feet long right there, and once they're about three, four years old they leave and don't come back. They move past that area."

The shark that was in the picture was bigger and likely an eight-foot juvenile on his way north.

"That shark was most likely migrating north, further north, but stopped in to maybe grab a snack on the way and got caught and released. And it didn't make it that would be my guess," Fischer said.

He said that's likely not the shark involved in the previous confirmed attacks off the Long Island coast.