Scientists have criticised social influencers for upsetting sharks by filming themselves swimming with them.
As BBC News reports, at least three influencers have been bitten by sharks in less than a year. "I'm seeing these videos every single week now, and it's way more than it ever used to be," it quotes shark scientist Kristian Parton as commenting.
Parton, who also hosts the 'Shark Bytes' YouTube channel, has warned that “we’re going to see people ending up in really serious incidents with sharks."
In July, a fishing influencer almost lost his leg after being attacked by a reef shark while out spearfishing. In December, a Chinese content creator was bitten in the Maldives.
Both incidents were caught on camera, as was a bite sustained by Tayane Dalazen, a 37-year old Brazilian lawyer and social media personality, who was on a shark-diving trip off the coast of Brazil last April.
Dalazen was held underwater for several seconds when a nurse shark, more than seven feet (two metres) long, clamped its jaws around her thigh and then released her. Dalazen posted footage of the shark bite online, and it has since been viewed tens of millions of times.
She says she "wasn't there for social media" and didn't touch or provoke the shark, but admits she was too close.
In February last year, a tourist in the Caribbean had both hands bitten off while trying to get a photograph of a bull shark from the shallows, according to local authorities, while a snorkeller in Israel carrying a “selfie stick” in April of last year was killed by sharks.
Scientific studies have shown that approaching or touching a shark induces high levels of hormones called glucocorticoids, which can weaken their immune system and cause increased mortality and aborted offspring, the BBC reports.
Read BBC News here.
