Swimmers, beware! Thousands of blacktip sharks swarmed the waters of Palm Beach, Florida, this past Friday, February 12, and experts say El Niño had something to do with the bizarre ecological phenomenon.
Florida Atlantic University professor and biologist Dr. Stephen Kajiura, whose claim to fame is numerous Shark Week appearances, found himself in the spotlight this weekend for a new reason. The science professional captured a jaw-dropping video of the blacktip sharks migrating along the coastline of the Sunshine State.
“Fantastic aerial survey flight this morning. Thousands of sharks off Palm Beach and up to Jupiter,” Kajiura wrote on the FAU Shark Migration Facebook page. “Very few sharks spotted from Miami to Palm Beach. Really looking forward to instrumenting some sharks with transmitters tomorrow.”
The following day, the organization posted photos of crew members venturing out into the shark-infested waters. “Successfully tagged 5 blacktip sharks with acoustic transmitters this morning,” the caption read, alongside snaps of crew members handling the aquatic creatures. “Great conditions – water was calm, flat, clear, and loaded with sharks.”
Before Friday, Kajiura had been waiting week for the sharks to appear. His patience paid off.
“It’s so cool,” the professor told CBS12. “There are literally tens of thousands of sharks a stone’s throw away from our shoreline. You could throw a pebble and literally strike a shark. They are that close.”
So why now? Scientists believe that the sharks started migrating due to a strange El Niño this past year. The underwater fish species typically begin their migration in the middle of January, but the waters remained empty until this past weekend when all of the critters swam en masse to warmer waters.
