There are going to be more shark sightings in the coming months, scientists say
(NEW YORK) — Warming waters are attracting more swimmers and sharks alike to the Eastern seaboard — creating the perfect recipe for an increase of shark sightings along the coasts in the coming months, some shark experts told ABC News.
Scientists at the New England Aquarium in Boston urged the public to be vigilant and report shark sightings after the first white shark of the season was confirmed off Massachusetts on Sunday.
A dead grey seal with a visible wound found on Lucy Vincent Beach in Chilmark, Martha’s Vineyard, was consistent with the bite of a white shark, John Chisholm, an adjunct scientist in the Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life, said in a statement.
“This is just the beginning of white shark season in New England, and it serves as a good reminder to be mindful of the presence of these sharks in inshore waters,” Chisholm said. “Their numbers will continue to increase throughout the summer with peak activity occurring in the fall.”
A juvenile white shark was also seen off the coasts of New York and New Jersey last week. The female shark, named Nori, pinged a shark-tracking system. Scientists with the Global Shark Tracker program have been monitoring her movements as she makes her way up the East Coast.
Nori is the first tagged white shark to begin this season’s northward migration, according to the nonprofit OCEARCH.
“It’s very normal for us to see more sharks off the East Coast, especially as you move north in the summer compared to the winter, partially because they’re more likely to be there and partially because someone’s more likely to be watching,” Catherine Macdonald, director of the University of Miami’s Shark Research and Conservation Program, told ABC News.
Why there are more shark sightings in the summer months
The moment a swimmer sets foot in the ocean, they are in close proximity to a shark — even if they’re not necessarily in sight, according to marine biologists who spoke with ABC News.
At least 30 species of sharks are starting to make their northward seasonal migration up the Eastern seaboard after overwintering in southern waters, Joel Fodrie, director of the Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told ABC News.
As the waters begin to warm, they’re on the move to new areas to set up their strategies for hunting, Fodrie said.
Those recreating on the coastlines can expect to see different species of sharks, depending on where they are.
Of the sharks considered aggressive or a potential threat to humans, white sharks are commonly seen in the Northeast during the summer months — especially around Cape Cod — because their preferred prey, the grey seal, tends to congregate there, Bradley Wetherbee, a professor of marine biology and ecology at the University of Rhode Island, told ABC News.
Tiger sharks bask in the warm Florida waters year-round, Mahmood Shivji, a shark biologist at the Save the Seas Foundation Shark Research Center at Nova Southeastern University, told ABC News.
Bull sharks are common in the Gulf and feed on large fish — often confusing humans for prey in those interactions, Wetherbee said.
A large presence of fish, mackerel or seals — all prey for sharks — could indicate that one is nearby, looking to feed. The presence of dolphins could also mean a shark is around, because the larger marine animals tend to feed on the same prey, Frodrie said.
There are also simply more opportunities to see sharks, the experts said.
Protections in the Atlantic have allowed shark populations to rebound in the waters off the U.S., while globally they are still being killed at high rates due to overfishing, Shivji said.
The existence of drones and advanced cameras — as well as social media — are making the presence of sharks more known than ever before, Frodrie added.
Swimmers should be vigilant, but don’t necessarily need to worry, experts say
An increase in shark presence in the north and mid-Atlantic is normal and isn’t anything to worry about, Macdonald said.
With the exceptions of the bolder species, sharks are scared of people and fairly easy to spook, Frodrie said.
“There’s more than 540 species of shark on the planet, and the vast majority of them rarely come into contact with people but wouldn’t be a threat to them even if they did,” Macdonald said.
Over the last 400 million years, sharks have evolved to detect things and sense their environment using their jaws, Wetherbee said. When they bite people, they are likely testing whether they are prey.
“No one wants to have a negative encounter, but it’s kind of a primordial fear,” Wetherbee said.
Sharks are a keystone species, and their presence can be a marker of a healing ecosystem, Macdonald said. They play a “huge role” in shaping the structure and function of ecosystems by moving nutrients around landscapes and helping control prey populations, she added.
“Marine ecosystems look really different in the absence of sharks, often in ways that we don’t want, so we don’t always appreciate them when we see them,” Macdonald said.
The public can report shark sightings through the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s Sharktivity app, which provides information and push notifications on shark movements in the aim to help people and sharks coexist.
Sharks are not the biggest danger humans face at the beach
Shark bites on humans — especially fatal attacks — are rare, the data shows.
In 2025, there were 65 confirmed unprovoked shark bites on humans and 29 provoked bites — meaning the human initiated the interaction in some way, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File.
On average, fewer than 10 people worldwide are killed by unprovoked shark attacks each year, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History. In 2025, there were 12 confirmed shark-related fatalities, nine of which were labeled as unprovoked.
Getting bitten by a shark is rare in itself, but victims of shark attacks have a 1 in 3.7 million chance of being killed by a shark.
All four shark experts ABC News spoke with pointed to rip currents as being the real danger swimmers face at the beach.
In the U.S. alone, there are more than 100 deaths annually that are attributed to rip currents, according to a scientific review of data provided to the United States Lifesaving Association.
“Supervision of kids in the ocean, awareness of rip currents and risks of drowning — all of that is a much greater risk to swim or safety than sharks will ever be,” Macdonald said.
Compared to the number of drownings at beaches, the odds of getting bitten by a shark are extremely low, the experts said.
“The numbers are so small, but it doesn’t do any good to tell people that, because if you’re out there, if you’re one of the ones that gets bitten … I’m sure it’s quite an ordeal,” Wetherbee said.
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