SHARK ATTACKS ON THE RISE!
Why America’s beaches are the most unsafe in the world
WITH summer in full swing, Americans are increasingly terrified of going into the water — and experts tell GLOBE their fears are justified!
In a blockbuster special investigation, GLOBE reveals scientists expect the number of deadly attacks to increase this season and detail the shocking reason no swimmer is safe in the waters on the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific coasts.
Gavin Naylor, director of shark research at the Florida Museum of Natural History, boldly forecasts the next attack will be in the Carolinas, states that record up to 14 shark bites a year.
“It’s a good habitat for the sharks and it’s a place where people like to go in the summer.
“My prediction is that the next bite will be in Hilton Head
[S.C.]. The dads go out to play golf and the moms take the kids to the beach,” explains Naylor.
“That’s when it happens.” Meanwhile, shark attacks across the globe have doubled in the last 20 years, with 66 last year and experts expect the terror to get worse.
Stephen Midway, an assistant professor of Oceanography at Louisiana State University, tells why: “As development increases along the coast and in beach communities, more residents and tourists frequent these waters.
“With more people in the water, the chance for a shark attack increases.”
Some experts also blame global warming since the razor-toothed monsters like warmer waters.
Others say a rebound in the seal population is also fueling the attacks since the sharks,
especially great whites, love to prey on the marine mammals.
Amazingly, the U.S. led the world with 32 attacks last year. New Smyrna Beach, Fla., is the shark attack capital of the world, according to the Florida Museum’s International Shark Attack File.
GLOBE previously reported two gruesome attacks in Hawaii and North Carolina earlier this year.
The first horror came in Maui in May where 65-yearold retired optometrist Thomas Smiley was ripped apart as he swam just 60 yards from the shore in front of wife Gale.
“I watched … When they pulled him up on the shore I saw the swimsuit he was wearing and recognized that was him,” says the widow. “I was pretty much in shock.”
In June, 17-year-old Paige
Winter was just waist deep off
Atlantic Beach,
N.C., when she felt a tug on her leg and thought someone was playing a joke on her.
Suddenly, like in the beginning of Jaws, she was yanked under the water.
Her dad, Charlie, a paramedic and firefighter, jumped into the water and dove where he came eye to eye with a shark clamping down on his little girl.
“He was staring at me sideways. Just the biggest, blackest eye,” he recalls.
Incredibly, the desperate dad drove the monster off by punching it again and again.
Paige survived but lost two fingers and her left leg below the knee.
Her attack was one of THREE in North Carolina in June alone — and it’s only going to get worse, scientists fear.