{"id":229113,"date":"2025-10-28T00:22:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T00:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/229113\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T00:22:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T00:22:13","slug":"scientists-explain-why-harmless-sharks-devoured-swimmer-in-chilling-world-first-sciencealert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/229113\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Explain Why &#8216;Harmless&#8217; Sharks Devoured Swimmer in Chilling World First : ScienceAlert"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A species of shark never before documented killing humans has now done so, devouring a swimmer in a chilling first.<\/p>\n<p>On 21 April 2025, a 40-year-old tourist was snorkeling in the Mediterranean more than 100 meters off the coastline of Hadera, Israel, using a GoPro to film a group of dusky sharks (<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dusky_shark\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Carcharhinus obscurus<\/a>) when the incident occurred.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists believe the attack began when a curious shark took an exploratory bite at the GoPro and missed. Instead, the shark accidentally bit the man holding the camera; the blood and panic that ensued likely triggered a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Feeding_frenzy\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">feeding frenzy<\/a> among the congregating sharks.<\/p>\n<p>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/sharks-do-something-bizarre-when-turned-upside-down-and-we-dont-know-why\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sharks Do Something Bizarre When Turned Upside Down, And We Don&#8217;t Know Why<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Witnesses heard him shouting: &#8216;Help\u2026they&#8217;re biting me&#8217; before he disappeared from sight as the water turned red and some dorsal and caudal fins appeared on the surface,&#8221; write marine biologists Eric Clua of Paris Science and Letters Research University and Kristian Parton of the University of Exeter in the UK <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/eth.70013\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">in a report of the incident<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The day after, searches at sea recovered human remains (in very small quantities) that allowed the forensic confirmation of the victim&#8217;s identity, but also led to the conclusion that he had been devoured by &#8216;several&#8217; sharks during this incident.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/planetsharkdivers.com\/what-is-a-dusky-shark\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dusky sharks<\/a> are known for their lack of aggression towards humans, making them a safe target for <a href=\"https:\/\/safeguardtheseas.org\/2023\/10\/19\/609\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ecotourism activities<\/a> where people can feed and interact with a fascinating marine predator.<\/p>\n<p>Hadera is a popular spot to see them; the nearby desalination plant pumps warm water into the area, attracting large numbers of dusky sharks.<\/p>\n<p>This frequent interaction with humans and the <a href=\"https:\/\/oceanservice.noaa.gov\/facts\/sharkseat.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">unnatural shark behaviors<\/a> this interaction encourages, Clua and Parton believe, could be a major contributor to the fatal encounter.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Artificial provisioning in the area has resulted in habituation with behaviors including begging, potentially resulting in a bold shark displaying a first reflex\/clumsiness bite targeting the camera held by the snorkeler, unintentionally wounding him,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/eth.70013\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">they write in their paper<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The sound and olfactory stimuli have likely triggered a feeding frenzy, leading to multiple sharks engaging in predation bites. In this case study, extreme competition between individuals has probably overridden the non-instinctive prey nature of the human victim.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/spark-into-space-comp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Mid-Article-Promo-Astro-642x272.jpg\" alt=\"Win a $10,000 Space Coast Adventure Holiday\" width=\"642\" height=\"272\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-177074 size-medium\"   loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.des.nh.gov\/news-and-media\/blog\/february-2024-ecotourism-and-how-it-can-change-way-you-vacation\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ecotourism<\/a> can be highly beneficial to both local economies and ecosystems, <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.marpol.2018.08.022\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">providing a disincentive<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/heres-why-the-worlds-first-eco-certified-shark-fishery-closed-down\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">shark fishing<\/a> and a motive to protect their habitats. The best path forward, the scientists say, would be to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/its-not-just-orcas-dolphins-are-spreading-behaviors-too-and-its-a-real-problem\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ban the feeding of sharks<\/a> in the region to eliminate begging behavior and maintain a healthier distance between the sharks and the humans who come to admire them.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The worst solution,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/eth.70013\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">they write<\/a>, &#8220;would be to unselectively eliminate all sharks present in this area in the form of a cull, since the responsibility for this specific incident lies essentially with humans.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The report has been published in <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/eth.70013\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ethology<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A species of shark never before documented killing humans has now done so, devouring a swimmer in a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[249,90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":{"0":"post-229113","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-msft-content","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom","13":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}