Bull sharks, one of the biggest and most violent predators in the ocean, are surviving, despite the extinction of other marine species due to rising sea temperatures. Researchers from Mississippi State University (MSU) discovered that, in comparison to the beginning of the study period in 2003, the number of individual sharks—all juveniles—recorded every hour in Mobile Bay was five times higher in 2020. There, the average sea temperature increased from 72.1F (22.3C) in 2001 to 73.4F in 2020, indicating that bull sharks may benefit from the climate emergency. This information is released concurrently with experts’ warnings of a “cataclysmic” global extinction disaster brought on by the seas’ record temperatures.
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The lead author of the study, Lindsay Mullins, of the university’s coastal research centre, told ABC News that the results refute the theory that many species suffer from rising seas. The MSU researchers compared meteorological data gathered by remote sensors in Mobile Bay with data from 440 bull sharks that Alabama’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources had caught, tagged, and released over 17 years. The impact of shifting environmental conditions demonstrated by the five-fold rise in bull shark numbers. Coastal communities will continue to shift as long as climate change persists, which will affect how nearshore fisheries perform and how ecological communities structured.
Mullins attributes the survival of shark populations in the face of mounting environmental difficulties to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (Noaa) extensive and multi-decade program of shark management. Bull shark males are fiercely territorial, reaching lengths of up to 12 feet (3.7 meters) and weights of up to 500 pounds (227 kg).
