Joel Fodrie explains why sharks deserve our love
Carolina’s resident shark expert fielded questions about these fascinating creatures for Shark Week (July 20-26).
In the July installment of the “Let Me Explain” series from the UNC College of Arts and Sciences, Carolina researcher Joel Fodrie discusses facts and myths about sharks. Fodrie is director of the Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City, North Carolina, and a professor and the Thomas Willis Lambeth Distinguished Chair in Public Policy in the Earth, marine and environmental sciences department.
Why is it important for the public to better understand sharks?
Sharks elicit a very visceral reaction in humans — and I can certainly understand a healthy, respectful fear of large, powerful animals. Understanding the functional roles of sharks in an ecosystem, however, can bring balance to our thoughts on sharks and relate them to what humans want and expect regarding the future of the ocean. We’ve seen some progress on this front over the last few decades as we, as a society, have begun to prioritize shark conservation. In some locations, certain shark species have shown early signs of increase following these efforts to conserve and sustain these fishes. In this context, the only narrative when we discuss sharks cannot be related to the potential for a shark to bite a human.
Have shark attacks increased in recent years?
In North Carolina, in the more than 90 years for which we have records, there have been around 80 shark attacks. Given those numbers, the only answer is that shark attacks have always been and continue to be extremely rare. I think if you compared the first 60 years of data to the last 20 years, the annual number of attacks was somewhere just under one attack per year and now hovers somewhere between one to two attacks per year. If that “increase” is anything more than just noise in the data, it most likely tracks with an increase in how many humans spend time in the water, as opposed to something fundamental about the per capita risks people face related to sharks.
Joel Fodrie holds a young Atlantic sharpnose shark during an Institute of Marine Sciences shark trip survey off the coast of Morehead City in 2021. (Megan May/UNC Research)
Why is it critically important to protect sharks and their habitats, especially on the Carolina coast?
The truth is that we don’t yet understand all the important roles sharks play in coastal ecosystems, because given the logistics, they are a challenging group to study. There are a number of examples, however, that highlight how sharks maintain balance in marine food webs. If we lose sharks, the animals directly beneath sharks in the food web can become more numerous or behave with impunity. Subsequently, things lower in the food web may become less abundant — an indirect effect that can negatively impact humans.
For instance, in North Carolina, a working hypothesis is that the loss of large sharks allowed cownose rays to proliferate. In turn, increased numbers of cownose rays have played a part in reducing one of those rays’ favorite foods: bay scallops, which were formerly a valuable fishery product in the state.
If you had 30 seconds to address the most common misconception(s) about sharks, what would you say?
Sharks, generally speaking across many species, are extremely risk-averse animals. Many of their behaviors and even structural adaptations seem to be driven by minimizing risk. It is very easy to spook a shark. They are wild animals, and bites or attacks will happen, but anyone who spends time in the ocean will be in proximity to a shark at some point. The fact that attacks are incredibly rare highlights that sharks nearly universally do what they can to avoid close encounters with people.
