What to do if you come into contact with a shark

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IIn the last two months, many people have been attacked by sharks in Florida, Hawaii and Texas. And while some of these occurrences may not be out of the ordinary, they also create an element of fear for those who want to go to the beach during the hottest months of the year.

In early June, two separate shark attacks injured three people along Florida’s Gulf Coast, prompting authorities to warn citizens about the danger of sharks in the water and urge them to stay away with care when swimming in the ocean. A few weeks ago, there was another shark attack in Hawaii, which killed a lifeguard who was surfing off the island of Oahu. And, throughout the celebration of the Fourth of July, at least four people have been killed by sharks in Texas and Florida.

Shark attack cases, trends and interactive maps for the curious are recorded with the International Shark Attack File (ISAF) at the Florida Museum of Natural History – a comprehensive database of all known shark attacks started in 1958.

So what do you do if you meet a shark? An expert shares with TIME what to do in the event you see a shark and how to best prepare to avoid injury.

Read more: Are shark attacks on the rise? Here’s what the data says

The bait fish offers a warning for evacuation

According to Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Shark Research Program and ISAF, people can very often be close to sharks, although swimmers often ignore them, as sharks swim within about 100 yards. 200 yards out to sea. Sharks generally try to avoid people and keep to themselves, according to Naylor.

But, when they approach the shore – usually, looking for food in bait fish – there are many ways that people can “meet” a shark in the water, and each of these cases requires different approaches . If people see baitfish jumping out of the water, that’s a good indication that a shark is nearby, and they should evacuate, Naylor says, especially if the waters aren’t clear.

“If the water is very murky, and (the sharks are) fishing, and they are, they’re looking for bait fish, and they’re going through a morass of people, then obviously they’re more likely to make a mistake,” Naylor tells TIME.

If a shark charges, fight back

It is important to pay attention to the behavior of the shark, and see if its movements are erratic, if it moves back and forth, circling, or just has a swimmer at the center of its attention.

If the shark manages to charge, Naylor says hitting the shark in the snout very hard will usually scare the animal away.

“They have a lot of receptors on their snouts, so if they’re really alarmed, they’ll turn and go,” Naylor continues. “This happens nine times out of 10.”

If that doesn’t work, and a shark tries to bite a swimmer — or even has a limb in its mouth — Naylor says the best course of action is to hit the shark hard in the eyes. Then, one must step back out of the water, maintaining eye contact with the shark and making sure never to leave his back towards the animal until they are back on the beach.

Different bodies of water, different shark threats

As for prevention and preparation, Naylor says this often depends on the water you’re in, and thus the sharks that swim in those waters.

“People say ‘Don’t look at your shiny jewelry’. Well, of course that helps if you’re worried about blacktip sharks, because they feed on schooling fish,” Naylor said. “But if you’re in Australia, whether you’re wearing jewelry or not, it’s going to make a bit of a difference to a great white shark, because it feeds on seals.”

According to Naylor, this year’s attacks in Florida specifically are not out of the ordinary, with thousands of sharks and millions of tourists in the summer. However, in 2023, the ISAF confirmed only 69 unprovoked shark bites on humans and 22 provoked shark bites, a slight increase from the most recent five-year average of 63 incidents per year, but a number they still categorized as “extremely low”, as fluctuation is expected.

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