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Researchers say shark populations, which declined as much as 90 percent from the 1970s to the 1990s, are now rebounding as the ecosystem resettles, Robert Hueter, the chief scientist of Ocearch, told The New York Times.
But, Hueter also points to climate change at work, saying sharks have moved up the coast to the New York Bight, a wedge formed by the shorelines of Long Island and New Jersey, the Times wrote.
Other environmental engineers agree, including Dr. Tracy Fanara, who told the Daily Mail that climate change, added with La Niña, has caused sharks to migrate in large numbers and come earlier than usual.
"La Niña can supercharge the effects of climate change in some locations, in the short term, resulting in warmer temperatures, she said in an interview with the Daily Mail.
La Niña is expected to continue through 2022 with the odds of it decreasing in late summer, according to NOAA.
Fanara said to add the two together and shark migration patterns have changed where sharks can congregate, including on Long Island where numerous attacks and sightings have been seen in the past few weeks.
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, where some six attacks have taken place over the past two weeks, said the incidents added up to “something of a new normal."
The attacks can also be attributed to seals and sea lions in the area which have moved closer to shore on Long Island, which is a prepared food source for sharks, Fanara added.
Along with climate change and La Niña, Fanara said overfishing could be causing sharks to come closer to shore to eat and there could be more people in the water at the same time.
The warmer ocean waters are also playing a large role in sending the large migration up north because sharks such as tiger, bull, dusky, and others, like warm waters, she added.
This is why swimmers and surfers will have to learn to co-exist with sharks and remember not to swim in areas where large schools of fish swim, or seals or sea lions are in the area.
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