Why shark attacks in US waters are already nearing double figures even though summer just kicked off

Beach season has only just kicked off but already the ocean’s deadliest predators are striking, with seven shark attacks and one fatality in US waters this year.Sightings of the ocean menaces from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific are up, as experts say warming oceans have pushed the cold-blooded man-eaters’ migration rates closer to our shores.Not only that, shark populations are on the rise because they have more to feed off.“We’ve fixed the prey base.We’re not killing seals and sea lions for furs and oil anymore, so the sharks have more to eat … When you have more sea life, you have more sharks,” Forrest Galante, a host of Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, told The Post.Considering that such prey like to bask on or near shore — Galante characterizes seals as being like “a meat sausage [snack] for a shark”— it also brings the razor-toothed hunters closer to shallow waters.Last year there was a record-setting 65 unprovoked shark attacks around the world.

America had the largest number of such incidents with 25.There were also 12 unprovoked shark-related deaths, tripling the 2024 count, which stood at four.The US recorded one shark-related fatality in each of those years.However, already in 2026, Minnesotan Arlene Lillis, 56, lost her life to a shark during a vacation to the US Virgin Islands in January.

During the attack the shark bit off her arm, leading her to let loose with what a former lifeguard on the scene described as “ungodly screaming.”A source told The Guardian, “I figured if we got her to a hospital, she’d have a fighting chance,” but sadly, it was too late and Lillis died from her wounds.Last month in Panama City, Florida, a Navy employee was critically injured by a shark attack near the Naval marina.The victim was on a lunchtime swim when he was chomped.Here in New York, a swimmer’s foot bone was left exposed after what lifeguards believe was an attack by a tiger shark at Jones Beach on Long Island last Friday ...