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Sharks are in the news again, both in reel-life and real-life.
On the small screen, Discovery Channel kicked off its 35th annual “Shark Week” programming marathon on July 23 with a schedule of productions detailing nearly every imaginable aspect of shark life. On the political stage, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on July 10 that 60 drones were being deployed to beaches along Long Island, New York City and Westchester County to help with shark spotting. The governor, noting the state has recorded five shark attacks this year, declared, “If the message can get out to the sharks: we are watching from land and sea and air.”
For the residents of the Westchester and Fairfield County shoreline communities, the warnings about sharks in the water might call to mind Roy Scheider”™s worried observation about needing a bigger boat. But according to Dr. Ashley Stoehr, assistant biology professor at Sacred Heart University, local beach denizens should not have to worry about living their own private “Jaws.”
“There are sharks in the Long Island Sound,” Stoehr said. “It’s less likely that you will find things like the Great Whites ”“ not impossible, by any means, but less likely overall because they tend to be in habitats where it’s a little bit shallow and then into deep water. Most of them are moving from the New York Bight up to Cape Cod. But we do get other sharks in the Sound ”“ things like sand tiger sharks and blue sharks. I know someone who caught a common thresher a few weeks ago. So, they do come in and they do swim around.”
Stoehr advised that anyone on the lookout for the great white sharks will have a better chance of finding them in areas where there is a seal population.
“That’s where you really want to have your ”˜Jaws”™ hairs up, so to speak,” she said. “Other types of sharks that might come closer into shore and could be dangerous to people tend to be a little bit more common down south. We might see them up here, but not as much. And that tends to be things like a tiger shark. You’ll occasionally have smaller sharks in the water ”“ spiny dogfish tend to like to be a little bit deeper, smooth-hounds might come up. But those sharks are quite small and they’re very unlikely to attack you.”
And despite the sinister reputation that sharks received in popular culture, Stoehr insisted sharks are not out to obliterate humans.
“Let’s put it that way: You’re their predator, not the other way around,” she said. “In general, you don’t need to be afraid as long as you are being smart and listening to the information that’s around you.”
Stoehr observed that global shark populations have been declining for years due to a combination of factors including fishing industry bycatching ”“ where sharks have been accidentally trapped and killed by fishing fleets going after other species ”“ and by overfishing of the species that sharks feed upon.
“In addition, you know, our waters are warming, and that’s going to affect sharks,” she said. “And if it doesn’t affect them directly, it’s going to affect their prey species.”
Still, sharks and Long Island Sound residents have at least one thing in common: their fondness for the summer weather.
“Sharks tend to take one or two migration patterns,” she said. “They tend to be further north for the summer and then further south for the winter, or they tend to be inshore during the summer and then offshore during the winter. A lot of them are either following the warm temperatures themselves, or they are following their prey that are following the warm temperatures.”
