Shark Week: What species are swimming off Mississippi’s coast?

With Discovery Channel’s “Shark Week” underway, many Mississippians may not notice simply what number of species are swimming off the state’s shoreline.

During final 12 months’s “Shark Week,” Dr. Jill Hendon with the Center for Fisheries Research and Development on the University of Southern Mississippi defined that the waters off Mississippi boast “some of the greatest diversity” in all of the Gulf, even noting that white sharks will be often cross via deeper waters earlier than transferring on.

For this 12 months’s version of the annual TV occasion, we caught up with Hendon once more to be taught extra in regards to the species swimming near residence.

“We have been running a survey of shark species in the Mississippi Sound for well over 20 years now, and we routinely will find seven- or eight-foot – sometimes nine-foot – tiger sharks, great hammerheads, and scalloped hammerheads,” she stated.

While a shark that giant close to Gulfport or Ocean Springs could also be a startling sight, Hendon stated these sharks are nonetheless removed from full-grown. As they mature, they transfer farther offshore.

“It’s really interesting because, by far, all off these species are still juvenile,” the shark skilled continued. “So, you might be seeing a seven-foot shark, but it’s still a juvenile because the adults go way far offshore.”

According to Hendon, there are roughly 9 species recurrently inhabit the Mississippi Sound and surrounding barrier islands. The checklist consists of Atlantic sharpnose, black tip, finetooth, spinner, and bull sharks. The Atlantic sharpnose is the commonest species within the area and solely will get to be about three ft lengthy.

Further offshore – and properly away from beachgoers laying out towels or using boogie boards – giant mako sharks are a typical sight for Hendon and her crew.

“Just south of us, we do get some bigger stuff like makos. They can definitely get into the teens – between 13 and 15 feet, somewhere in there,” she stated.

READ MORE: Massive nice white shark noticed close to Mississippi barrier island

Hendon stated that whereas sharks are undoubtedly swimming within the waters off Mississippi, their presence isn’t any purpose to attract a line within the sand and never get within the water. She pointed to 2 statistics: Vending machines kill extra individuals every year than sharks, and only a few shark assaults have occurred within the Mississippi Sound over the previous century and a half.

“When we look at the shark attack files that are maintained off of Florida and specifically look at the Mississippi coast, the only quote-unquote provoked attacks that resulted in death were in the late 1800s and the early 1900s,” Hendon stated. “So, not even any time within our lifetimes or generations. A lot of the fear is just what we’re saying – irrational.”

Irrational or not, worry is a phrase usually related to sharks, particularly as “Shark Week” has advanced into a mixture of cinematic leisure and academic programming. Hendon believes that worry usually turns into fascination, serving to clarify why the annual occasion continues to attract hundreds of thousands of viewers.

“For some reason, fear has this way of connecting people internally and really turning that fear into fascination and wanting to basically understand where that fear is something from and if it’s logical,” she stated.

When requested whether or not she enjoys “Shark Week” or believes it promotes the misperception that sharks are senseless, man-eating killers, Hendon had a nuanced reply.

“That’s a tough question for me,” she stated. “I got here up when ‘Shark Week’ was sort of first beginning, and ‘Shark Week’ was actually rooted in good scientific knowledge and actually making an attempt to current info and present the position that these animals play in our ecosystem.

“Over time, because people love the fear of things and love that fear factor, a lot of the shows have kind of taken a shift to really draw viewers with that fear factor. And so, we get a lot of sensationalization that happens and I think that needs to be balanced out with the facts, because when you start promoting that and putting more of that out there, you’re sending the wrong message. People may be walking away with a lot of facts about attacks and less facts about the critical role they play in our waters.”