Shark Attacks Are Now More Likely in These States, Due to Warmer Waters

In case you hadn’t heard (or have chosen not to listen), the ocean is getting warmer. Greenland lost 12.5 billion tons of ice in a single-day meltdown over the weekend.

Rising, warmer waters have harrowing long-term implications, and have already created some immediate changes in the behavior of marine life. Sharks, for instance, are now more likely to show up off the coasts of Massachusetts, New York, and North and South Carolina.

That’s according to a study done by SafeWise, a home security service that dug into data compiled by the Global Shark Attack File. From 2000-2009 to 2010-2019, New York and Massachusetts jumped from zero shark attacks to two and four, respectively, while South Carolina and North Carolina jumped from 28 and 26, to 38 and 32, respectively.

To be clear, these are non-fatal attacks (only about six people in the entire world die from shark attacks each year), and if those numbers seem small, it’s because they are. While there has been an uptick, shark attacks are still exceedingly rare, and the majority of them occur in Florida and Hawaii, which lead the way with 238 and 73 attacks this year. In fact, the risk of being attacked by a shark is a preposterous 1:738 million.

Hollywood has done its job well, though, so people will understandably now not want to boogie board in the Carolinas or along the northeast Atlantic. If you’re one of those people, heed our advice on how to best avoid sharks in the wild:

“Don’t swim at dawn or dusk. Don’t follow dolphins; they’re hunting the same fish. Don’t swim after it rains. Don’t swim in polluted, murky waters. Don’t swim at low tide. Don’t get in the f*cking ocean. Just kidding. Do. Just don’t wear jewelry, loud bathing suits or open wounds. Don’t splash frantically. Don’t swim with seals. Don’t swim alone. Don’t swim near fishermen. Do swim in large groups. Do fight back if attacked, and do scream for help. And above all know this: way more people die of mosquito bites than shark attacks.”

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