Biologists at Florida Atlantic University’s (FAU) Elasmobranch Research Laboratory were conducting aerial research last week, when they came upon a massive migration of blacktip sharks. The extent of the migration stretched from Palm Beach up to Jupiter, about 25 km away.
The video and images have since exploded on the internet.
The university estimated that around 10,000 sharks are migrating, feeding on fish and enjoying the warm waters.
Blacktip sharks are medium-sized sharks that are considered to be timid. They typically live in shallow water and prefer to hunt schools of fish.
The university is catching and tagging some of the sharks for research.
Blacktips are considered near-threatened on the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources‘s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. The sharks are often caught in commercial fisheries for their meat.
As for danger to humans, the International Shark Attack File (ISAF) has documented that the blacktip shark has been responsible for 28 unprovoked worldwide attacks, with some being reported in Florida. However, the attacks have never been fatal. Blacktips are responsible for 16 per cent of attacks in Florida waters.
Though you would certainly like to stay out of the way of a massive shark migration like this, according to the ISAF, the odds of dying from a shark attack are 1 in 3,748,067. Your odds of dying in a car accident are 1 in 63.