Nurse sharks are not considered a dangerous shark species to humans
This is a photograph of a nurse shark, taken in Key Largo, Florida. To get a close up photograph of a shark can be tricky, but the nurse shark gives you a better chance than most shark species. Nurse sharks will lay down on the sand, typically underneath ledges. They have a unique ability to push water over their gills with a body part called a buccal pump. This allows them to breathe without swimming. As a diver, if you approach slowly you can often observe nurse sharks fairly close. Sometimes it seems nurse sharks are curious of divers, and they will swim towards divers to get a look at them.
Although adult nurse sharks can grow to around ten feet in length, they are not considered a dangerous shark species to humans. I’ve been lucky enough to have countless encounters with nurse sharks. Additionally, I’ve spoken with lots of divers over the years, and I’ve never heard of unprovoked bites from nurse sharks.
Since we are talking about sharks, lets talk about shark bites. There is an organization that keeps an “International Shark Attack File”, The Florida Museum of Natural History. Does it capture every shark bite in every country across the world? It attempts to. In the real world, I’m sure not every incident is reported, but they do a pretty good job laying out the data. Their most recent report is from 2023. Here are some of their interesting findings.
- They investigated 120 alleged bites. 69 of those bites were unprovoked and 22 of those bites were provoked. This data falls in line with the recent five-year averages.
- Globally, there were 14 shark related fatalities in 2023. 10 of these 14 were unprovoked attacks.
- The United States had 36 reported bites, the most of any country. Australia was 2nd with 15 unprovoked bites.
- Florida leads the United States with 16 unprovoked shark bites. Hawaii was 2nd with eight.
- The United States had two fatalities from sharks in 2023. One in Hawaii and one in California.
The “International Shark Attack File” is kept by The Florida Museum of Natural History
If you are interested in more shark bite data, check out The Florida Museum of Natural History website.
Although not considered “Threatened” in the United States, the nurse shark global status assessed by the IUCN (The International Union for Conservation of Nature) reports them as “Vulnerable”. Some people target nurse sharks for fishing, and others consider them by-catch.
Did you know?
- The nurse shark is unique in that it has two dorsal fins. These are rounded and set back far on its body.
- Nurse sharks have ~58-76 teeth. All these teeth are nearly identical.
- Nurse sharks are capable of reproducing when they reach roughly seven feet in length. They are generally around 18-20 years old at that stage.
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