A 40-year-old male tourist was killed by a shiver of dusky sharks off the coast of Hadera, Israel, in April, in what scientists say is the first documented fatal attack by this species. The sharks, which are typically considered harmless to humans, devoured the man during a feeding frenzy.
Witnesses reported that a shark lunged at the victim's GoPro camera before he shouted for help and disappeared. Rescue teams later recovered small quantities of human remains, confirming he had been consumed by multiple sharks.
Researchers from the journal Ethology attribute the rare attack to a combination of human error, ecological distortion, and animal instinct. Dusky sharks, which can grow up to 3 metres, are usually shy, but the waters off Hadera have attracted them due to warm discharge from desalination plants and artificial feeding by humans.
Local boat operators have thrown fish scraps to keep sharks near tourists, leading to a behaviour called 'begging', where sharks associate humans with food. The competitive feeding environment triggered a frenzy, overriding the species' usual wariness.
Scientists recommend a complete ban on artificial feeding of sharks to prevent future incidents, stating that other measures would be less effective. 'The central objective is to eliminate the begging behaviour in sharks,' they wrote.
