OH WHALE
Real reason for Florida shark attacks revealed and scientists say it’s not rampaging killer whales driving them to shore
So what is causing a recent spike in shark encounters?
A SPATE of shark attacks across the Florida coast are not the result of orca predation, experts say.
Three people were injured in two shark encounters off the coast of Walton County, Florida - located in the Florida panhandle - on June 7.
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The victims were identified as a 45-year-old woman bitten near Watersound Beach and two teenagers who were wounded around four miles away.
Police deduced that the same bull shark was likely involved in all the attacks.
The encounter came just days after a pair of orcas were spotted off the coast of Destin, sparking speculation that the killer whales may have driven the shark closer to shore.
However, scientists say this is likely not the case.
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Marine biologist Jesús Erick Higuera-Rivas told Live Science that the sighting and subsequent attacks were "not connected."
Higuera-Rivas, who specializes in orca behavior, said the attacks were likely due to an increase in human activity near the sharks' feeding area.
Another culprit could be the recent wave of sweltering heat in Florida.
Higuera-Rivas hypothesized that freshwater output from estuaries had dwindled, drawing saltwater closer to shore and bringing the bull sharks' food source with it.
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Other experts wrote off the orca connection as baseless including Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Naylor told USA Today that killer whales are commonly found in deeper water than bull sharks and are unlikely to target them.
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"We don't know anything about orca behavior in the Gulf," Naylor added.
"There's no evidence that they're just targeting sharks whatsoever. So it's just a blind, transitive explanation based on rumor and little evidence."
He agreed that weather was likely a driving factor behind the shark attacks, citing rising sea-surface temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico and wind conditions that may have driven sharks closer to land.
Orcas are known to prey on sharks off the coast of Africa, a phenomenon long observed by scientists in the area.
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A pair of male killer whales believed to be removing sharks' livers with surgical precision and eating them has been the subject of many research papers.
Last month, the mangled corpse of a 15-foot-long shark washed up at the Nyara River Mouth. Its cause of death was later declared "killer whale predation."
The confirmation marked the 14th verified case of white shark predation by killer whales in South Africa since 2015.
Orca fact sheet
Killer whales are often written off as ferocious predators - but there's more to them than you'd think
- Orcas are members of the Delphinidae, or dolphin, family
- They earned the nickname "killer whales" after ancient sailors saw them preying on large whales
- Orcas are highly intelligent and able to work together while hunting
- They have complex social structures and appear to have the ability to establish close friendships
- Female orcas are believed to live up to 90 years old
- A male orca can measure nearly 33 feet in length and weigh over 22,000 pounds. Its dorsal fin alone can be up to 6 feet long
- Their Latin name is Orcinus orca. Orcinus translates to "belonging to Orcus," the king of the underworld
- Orcas have to remain conscious while sleeping because they lack an automatic breathing reflex
- Across all populations, orcas are generalists with an expansive diet. This includes fish, seals, porpoises, sharks, rays, large whales, squids, and seabirds
Not just confined to Africa - it is also happening in the Gulf of California, according to a study published earlier this month in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science.
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The authors cited three instances of orcas preying on sharks between 2022 and 2023 in the Cabo Pulmo National Park, Mexico.
The events were described as "the first documented predator-prey interactions between orca and sharks within the boundaries of the marine protected area of CPNP."