Great Whites Pose No Particular Threat To Miami

MIAMI, FL — News that a great white shark was tracked to the Miami area in recent days may strike fear in the hearts of some tourists and even locals, but a shark expert from Florida International University tells Patch that great whites probably started making regular visits to the "305" even before the first homo sapiens began their annual winter migrations.

"It's actually not that surprising just because we have known that white sharks are coming down to the ... South Florida area in the winter and we've known that for quite awhile now," explained professor Yannis P. Papastamatiou with the university's Predator Ecology and Conservation Laboratory.

He said that great whites migrate to South Florida from the Cape Cod area during the winter months and have been tracked as far south as the Gulf of Mexico. There have been a greater number of shark sightings in the Cape Cod area in recent years — including great whites — thanks to an increase in the seal population.

In recent days, a 460-pound great white named Savannah by shark tracking organization OCEARCH found its way to the South Florida coastline — passing by west Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Haulover Park and Miami Beach — before ending up in the Florida Keys as of Sunday night.

"It's always cool to see these sort of live updates if there is a white shark right off the coast of Miami, but the actual result itself in terms of us knowing that white sharks come down here in the winter, we already knew that," Papastamatiou said.

Whitetip Shark Study

Papastamatiou recently teamed up with an aerospace engineer and statisticians to study the movements of oceanic whitetip sharks. They may be even more difficult to study than great whites because they reside almost exclusively in open water.

First, researches used complex equations to determine the most efficient swim patterns for whitetip sharks based on the fact that they live in the oceanic equivalent of a desert. Their next meal is frequently more than a short swim away.

Papastamatiou found that nature equipped whitetip sharks with the most mathematically efficient swim patterns to survive such a harsh environment.

"It's showing the beauty of evolution in that we can make predictions as to how an animal behaves purely from physics and all these complex equations and predictions and then see that an animal that does evolve in open ocean behaves very similarly to how we predict," according to Papastamatiou.

"I certainly don't think this is unique to sharks," he added. "My guess is that if you start looking at other pelagic fish like tuna and marlin ... the predictions may be a bit different, but my guess is you'll see very similarly they're matching the predictions."

He said the findings gave him a greater appreciation for nature.

"It's always somewhat striking when math and nature match up so nicely," he said.

The whitetip project, which was conducted in the Bahamas, lasted several years and considered average shark sizes, swimming locations, water temperatures and daily activities. You can read more about the findings in Scientific Reports.

Climate Change

Papastamatiou doesn't think the presence of a great white in the Miami area was brought on by climate change.

"Certainly we do have to consider that changing climates can absolutely have an effect on animal migrations because temperature plays a strong role in terms of driving an animal's movements and also to tell me what habitat animals can move into," he said. "I wouldn't say in this case you could say that was linked to climate change, but we certainly do have to consider how a changing climate may change these migration patterns."

Just because great whites pass through the Miami area from time to time doesn't make them a significant threat.

"There's been white sharks coming down to these waters probably for as long as there's been humans in these areas," he said. "It's just that we know it now."

He doesn't know of any great white attacks on humans in the Miami area.

"Clearly they're not much of a threat," he said.

A great white shark swims in Shark Alley near Dyer Island in Gansbaai, South Africa. Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images.