Shark & Shark Attack FAQs

Where are shark attacks most common in the U.S.?
Most U.S. attacks occur in Florida. Incidents in Virginia are extremely rare and incidents in North Carolina are uncommon. There are only two unprovoked shark attacks on record in Virginia, a non-fatal incident in 1973 and a fatal attack in 2001. There have been 19 attacks in North Carolina between 1990 and 2004, 2 of them fatal. For a comprehensive database of shark-attack statistics, trends, and analyses, visit the International Shark Attack File.

Are shark attacks becoming more common?
Long-term trends in the prevalence of shark-human interactions is directly correlated to human population and interest in marine recreation. Because more humans are spending more time in the ocean, the number of shark-human interactions and other marine-related injuries is generally increasing. Increased media coverage and scientific interest has also led to an increase in the number of shark-human interactions that are recorded. Sharp declines in shark populations during recent decades in many areas of the world as a result of over-fishing and habitat loss are reducing the potential for shark-human interactions. Local year-to-year variations in economic and social factors, weather, and ocean conditions significantly influence the abundance of sharks and humans in the water. As a result, short-term changes in the number of shark attacks—up or down— must be viewed with caution. Scientists prefer to view trends over longer periods of time (e.g., by decade) rather than trying to assign undue significance to year-to-year variability. (adapted from ISAF statment )

What are the most common shark species in Virginia waters?
The most common shark species found in Virginia waters are sandbar sharks, smooth dogfish, Atlantic sharpnose sharks, and dusky sharks. See list of Common Species for additional details on each species.

How can one minimize the already low risk of a shark attack?
Avoid being in the water when sharks are most likely to be present. Sharks generally feed around dawn and dusk and often move into shallow waters following prey such as menhaden and other small fish. When schools of bait fish are observed near the shoreline sharks and other predators may also be nearby. Along the coast of the U.S. sharks move north in the spring with warming temperatures, and south again in the fall as water temperatures cool. Visit the International Shark Attack File for more advice on reducing the risk of a shark encounter.

What is the conservation status of sharks?
Today, populations of large sharks are only a fraction of what they were in the 1970s, largely due to over-fishing. The population of sandbar sharks, Virginia's most common species, stands at about 50% of 1970s levels. This is an increase from the 15% levels seen during the late 1980s, before fisheries management plans started to have a positive effect. Current populations of sandtiger sharks (at 15% of 1970s levels), dusky sharks (25%), and tiger sharks (40%) remain severely depressed. Sharks are susceptible to over-fishing because they grow slowly, reach sexual maturity at an advanced age (most of the larger species reach sexually maturity at 6-21 years), and produce only 8-10 pups every other year. The lower Chesapeake Bay and the lagoons along the Eastern Shore constitute the principal nursery grounds for sandbar sharks. This is the most abundant large shark species on the Atlantic Coast, and the most important in both recreational and commercial fisheries.

What is the focus of shark research at VIMS?
The Virginia Institute of Marine Science is one of four members of the National Shark Research Consortium. The VIMS Shark Research Program, headed by Dr. Jack Musick, has been monitoring shark populations in the Chesapeake Bight using standardized, fishery-independent longline surveys since 1973. This long-term data set represents the longest running fishery-independent shark-monitoring program in the world. The scientists and students at VIMS provide detailed analyses of habitat use, age, growth, reproduction, trophic dynamics, and demographics of commercially, recreationally, and ecologically important shark species.

Why are sharks important ecologically?
Sharks sit atop the food chain as apex predators. As such, they play an important ecological role in keeping prey populations healthy by removing weak, old, and infirm individuals. As shark populations decline due to over-fishing and habitat loss, prey populations can increase unchecked, leading to an overall decline in ecosystem health.

Common Species of Sharks in Virginia Waters

Sandbar shark, Carcharhinus plumbeus

• Approximate length: 2.2 m (7 ft.) for females and 1.8 m (5.9 ft.) for males.
• Range: coastal areas of all tropical and warm temperate oceans and seas.
• Diet: primarily small bottom fishes, mollusks, and crustaceans.
• Depth range: Demersel sharks typically found over muddy or sandy bottoms from the intertidal zone to waters more than 200 m (655 feet) deep.
• Migrate seasonally, heading south for the winter and north for the summer.
• Found in Chesapeake Bay and Virginia waters in the summer and fall. The Chesapeake Bay is one of the most important sandbar shark nursery areas in the western Atlantic (Compagno 1984, Murdy et al. 1997).

Dusky shark, Carcharhinus obscurus

• Maximum length: 3.6 m (11.8 ft.).
• Range: inhabits warm-temperate and tropical continental waters of the western North Atlantic, and can be found from southern New England south to the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico to southern Brazil.
• Depth: from the surf zone out to depths of 400m.
• Diet: consists of numerous fishes such as menhaden, bluefish tunas, mackerels, small sharks and skates.
• This species undertakes long temperature-related migrations along the east coast of the U.S. Animals move north as water temperatures increase with the onset of spring and return south with the onset of fall. (Castro 1983, Compagno 1984, Musick et al. 1993)

Atlantic sharpnose shark, Rhizoprionodon terraenovae

• Maximum length: approximately 1.1 meters (3.6 feet).
• Range: includes the western Atlantic from New Brunswick to Florida, including the Gulf of Mexico.
• Depth: mostly inhabits coastal areas, although it is sometimes found offshore.
• Mostly mature males are found in Virginia waters during the summer but are rarely seen inside the Chesapeake Bay. The Atlantic sharpnose is a year-round resident of the South Carolina and Florida coasts, as well as the Gulf of Mexico
• Diet: includes invertebrates such as the lady crab, long-finned squid and shrimp, as well as small fishes such as the small-mouth flounder. (Compagno 1994, Gelsleichter et al. 1999, Murdy et al 1997)

Blacktip shark, Carcharhinus limbatus

• Maximum length: females 1.93 m (6.3 ft) and males 1.75 m (5.7 ft).
• Range: inhabits shallow coastal waters to offshore waters from New England to Florida and is numerous in the Gulf of Mexico.
• Often seen at the surface. Jumps from the water rotating several times much like a spinner shark.
• Migrates north seasonally as far as Cape Cod and is common year round in the Southeast U.S.
• Diet: consists of fish, but as juveniles they may eat crustaceans and shrimp. (Dodrill 1977, Clark and von Schmidt 1965)

Spinner Shark, Carcharhinus brevipinna

• Maximum length: 3.0 m (9.8 feet).
• Range: inhabit continental and insular shelves from close inshore to offshore (depths of 0-100 meters) in the Western Atlantic from North Carolina to the northern Gulf of Mexico and the Bahamas, and are occasionally found in southern Virginia waters.
• Known to form schools and often makes vertical spinning leaps through schools of fish and out of the water.
• Diet: pelagic bony fishes, small sharks, cuttlefish, squids, and octopi. (Compagno 1984)

Sandtiger shark, Carcharias taurus

• Maximum length: approximately 3.2 m (10 ft).
• Range: Atlantic and Western Pacific Oceans. Western Atlantic Ocean from the Gulf of Maine to Argentina.
• The sandtiger undertakes seasonal migrations along the Atlantic Coast, inhabiting coastal Virginia and North Carolina waters during summer and fall (particularly September and October).
• Depth range: surf zone to continental shelf edge (0-200 m)
• Diet: bony fishes such as bluefish, flounder, and menhaden; sharks; stingrays; squids; crustaceans. Sandtiger sharks prey heavily upon juvenile sandbar sharks.

Scalloped hammerhead, Sphyrna lewini

• Maximum length: approximately 4.2 m (14 ft)
• Range: Inhabits warm-temperate and tropical coastal waters worldwide. Western Atlantic Ocean from New Jersey to Brazil, including the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.
• In the mid-Atlantic the scalloped hammerhead undergoes seasonal migrations, over-wintering in warmer Gulf Stream waters south of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. These fish arrive in Virginia coastal waters in June, and later migrate south along the coast from August to October.
• Depth range: surf zone to Gulf Stream (0-200 m)
• Diet: menhaden, mullet, flounder, and sciaenids (drums), crustaceans, stingrays, small sharks.

Smooth hammerhead, Sphyrna zygaena

• Maximum length: approximately 4.0 m (13 ft)
• Range: Inhabits warm-temperate coastal waters. Western Atlantic from Nova Scotia to Florida and Brazil to Argentina.
• Infrequently captured in lower Chesapeake Bay and adjacent coastal waters in summer and fall.
• Depth range: coastal zone to 200 m
• Diet: bony fishes, stingrays, small sharks

Bull shark, Carcharhinus leucas

• Maximum length: less than 3.4 m (11.1 feet)
• Range: all tropical and subtropical waters.
• Diet: Opportunistic feeders, feeding on bony fishes, sharks, rays, turtles, mammals, and invertebrates.
• Depth: found close inshore, in water ranging from 1 m (3 feet) to at least 152 m (500 feet).
• Bull sharks migrate seasonally moving northward along the U.S. Atlantic coast in the summer and southward again when the water cools.
• Bull sharks are uncommon in the Chesapeake Bay and other Virginia waters (Compagno 1984, Murdy et al. 1997).

Tiger shark, Galeocerdo cuvier

• Maximum length: 5.5 m (18 feet) for females and 3.7 m (12.1 feet) for males
• Found in nearly all warm temperate and tropical waters.
• Opportunistic feeders on bony fishes, sharks, rays, sea turtles, sea snakes, sea birds, marine mammals, carrion, and garbage.
• Tend to have a diel cycle of movement, coming inshore at night and moving into deeper waters during the day.
• Occasional visitors to Virginia waters and are usually found at least 10-20 miles offshore. (Compagno 1984)

Images of sharks are from http://www.fishbase.org and http://www.nefscsharks.nmfs.gov/.