Which sharks around Brevard, Florida bite the most? More than a third fit in this category
This list is not scientific, but based on how much we cross paths, resulting in a bite, here's a rough ranked list of the risk from various shark species in our region.
It's gleaned from the University of Florida's International Shark Attack File's (ISAF) data.
More than a third of the bites are a large group called requiem sharks, which include lemon sharks, sandbar sharks, spinner, sharpnose, blacknose and blacktip sharks.
"Due to the similarity of small coastal species in this group in tooth shape, body size, and appearance, it is often difficult to assign a species in bite cases," the Shark Attack File's website says. "Based on life history traits, ISAF suspects blacktip sharks ... account for the majority of these requiem bites in Florida. However, these cases lack enough evidence to be conclusive."
Lucky for us, most of those near shore tend to be the very small ones.
"No shark is more likely than another to bite, really, but the little ones are small enough to chase prey into the shallows where people swim," Toby Daly-Engel, an assistant professor at the Florida Institute of Technology and director of the school's Shark Conservation Lab, said via email.
"Larger ones like tiger sharks are rarer, but they're so big that even a minor bite could be fatal," she added. "Blacktips are the most abundant, so they cause most of the injuries in this area. Of course, rays are just flat sharks, so stingray stings are counted as attacks, too."
So she says it makes sense to rank the riskiest sharks for bites, from small to large sharks as follows:
Sharpnose
Blacknose
Finetooth shark
Blacktip
Lemon shark
Bull shark
Tiger shark
"There are also other sharks in our waters, like sand tiger sharks, white sharks, spinner sharks, oceanic whitetips, hammerheads, and all sorts of deeper-water species that you rarely see," Daly-Engel added.
Here's the breakdown of which species of sharks have bitten people in Florida since 1926, according to UF's shark attack file:
Contact Waymer at (321) 261-5903 or [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Which sharks rank as riskiest for shark attacks in Florida?
Solve the daily Crossword
