A spate of shark attacks off the coast of Florida is not the result of orca predation, experts say.
Three people were injured in two encounters with sharks off the coast of Walton County, Florida, on June 7.
The victims were identified as a 45-year-old woman bitten near Watersound Beach and two teenagers who were injured about four miles away.
Police deduced that the same bull shark was likely involved in all of the attacks.
The encounter came just days after a pair of orcas were spotted off the coast of Destin, sparking speculation that the orcas may have driven the shark closer to shore.
However, scientists say this is probably not the case.
Marine biologist Jesús Erick Higuera-Rivas said Living Science that the sighting and subsequent attacks were “not connected”.
Higuera-Rivas, an expert on orca behavior, said the attacks were likely due to increased human activity near the sharks’ feeding area.
Another culprit could be the recent sweltering heat wave in Florida.
Higuera-Rivas hypothesized that the estuaries’ freshwater production had declined, drawing saltwater closer to shore and bringing with it the bull sharks’ food source.
Other experts have dismissed the orca connection as unfounded, including Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research at the Florida Museum of Natural Nature History.
Naylor said USA today that killer whales are commonly found in deeper waters than bull sharks and are unlikely to target they.
“We know nothing about orca behavior in the Gulf,” Naylor added.
“There is no evidence that they are just attacking sharks. Therefore, it is just a blind and transitive explanation based on hearsay and little evidence.”
He agreed that weather was likely a factor in shark attacks, citing rising sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico and wind conditions that may have driven sharks closer to land.
Orcas preying on sharks observed off the coast of Africa, a phenomenon long observed by scientists in the region
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Pair of male killer whales reportedly remove shark livers with surgical precision and eat them, behavior the subject of much research
Last month, the mutilated corpse of a 15-foot-long shark washed up at the mouth of the Nyara River. The cause of death was later confirmed as “killer whale predation.”
The confirmation (FIX) marked the 14th confirmed case of white shark predation by killer whales in South Africa since 2015.
Orca fact sheet
Killer whales are often considered fierce predators – but there’s more to them than you might think
- Orcas are members of the Delphinidae, or dolphin, family.
- They earned the nickname “killer whales” after ancient sailors saw them attacking 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
- A male orca can measure nearly 33 feet long and weigh more than 22,000 pounds. Its dorsal fin alone can be up to 6 feet long
- Its Latin name is Orcinus orca. Orcinus translates as “belonging to Orcus”, the king of the underworld
- Orcas need to remain conscious while sleeping because they do not have an automatic breathing reflex.
- Across all populations, orcas are generalists with an extensive diet. This includes fish, seals, porpoises, sharks, rays, large whales, squid and seabirds
Not just confined to Africa — also happening in the Gulf of California, according to a study published earlier this month in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science.
The authors cited three cases of orcas attacking sharks between 2022 and 2023 in Cabo Pulmo National Park in Mexico.
The events were described as “the first documented predator-prey interactions between orcas and sharks within the boundaries of the CPNP marine protected area.”
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
