Sharks are growing more numerous on America’s east coast. On the south shore of Long Island, where some of New York’s most popular beaches are, shark attacks are on the increase. Over the Fourth of July weekend, several people were bitten, including two 15-year-olds. No one died or lost a limb, though.
The number of shark bites looks likely to rise from the summer of 2022, when there were at least eight shark bites, some by sand tiger sharks. Prior to last year, no year since the 1980s had more than two confirmed shark bites in New York.
Shark bites reflect a rise in sharks, which in turn indicates that coastal areas are full of fish, i.e., shark food.
“Sharks are a sign of a healthy ecosystem,” said Chris Paparo, a shark expert at Stony Brook University. “I look at that as a sign of successful conservation.”
The number of sharks and rays fall by more than 70 percent after 1980, largely due to industrial fishing. Fishing vessels not only kill sharks directly — by harvesting them or catching them accidentally — but also by catching the fish and seafood that are their food.
America has tried to reverse this trend along its east coast. Over the last 30 years, fisheries have adopted rules to protect shrinking shark populations and some of their food supplies. New York State has cleaned up some of its rivers that flow into the ocean, cutting the amount of polluted water that reaches coastal areas. These efforts appear to be bearing fruit.
“Are there more sharks now than there were five or 10 years ago? Absolutely,” said Tobey Curtis, a fishery management specialist at NOAA. “We’ve been managing and conserving shark populations since 1993.”
So the government wants there to be more sharks, as do many scientists.
Coastal New York was a shark habitat from time immemorial. Long Island’s south shore is a nursery for a variety of marine species including great white sharks. It is where they grow up.
People are not sharks’ preferred food. The most common sharks around Long Island are dusky sharks, sandbar sharks, and sand tiger sharks (not to be confused with tiger sharks) and their diet is largely fish. Sand tiger sharks prefer Atlantic menhaden, sleek sliver fish with a distinct black dot behind their gills.
