Each winter, hordes of blacktip sharks head to Florida to enjoy the warmer waters. While beachgoers stick to the shore, thousands of sharks take charge of the waters off the south Atlantic coast. It’s not a historically dangerous time to be in the water, as most locals know to expect this annual migration and the sharks tend to stay out of the surf line. The clear waters allow the sharks to see the difference between fish and human, and nibbles on people have been rare in South Florida. In fact, there has never been a blacktip-related fatality reported in the state.
These smallish sharks grow to between four and six feet long and can be identified by the eponymous black tips on their fins. For more on the annual gathering of blacktip sharks in Florida, check out this clip from 2015, when the state had a celebrity guest in the form of “Betsy,” a great white shark tagged and tracked by Ocearch, a shark research organization dedicated to preservation of these apex predators.
Below is a short video shot by researchers at Florida Atlantic University of this year’s gathering of blacktip sharks in Florida.
