Scientists and marine experts have urged tourists and content creators to stop taking photographs and videos with sharks following a sharp rise in attacks across popular global travel destinations. The warning, reported by the Daily Mail, comes as researchers push for an immediate end to attempts by holidaymakers to touch or sit on predatory fish for social media footage.
Over the past three years, the number of attacks on individuals capturing photos and videos with sharks has increased significantly. Researchers warn that social media platforms are actively fueling reckless behavior by creating a false illusion of safety around wild marine predators.
Recent Shark Attacks on Bloggers
In July, New Zealand fisherman and blogger Henry Gibbs narrowly escaped losing his right leg when a reef shark attacked him while he was underwater hunting off the coast of Fiji. Gibbs required four surgical procedures and a skin graft to recover from the severe tissue damage.
Fiji, an archipelago nation in the South Pacific Ocean comprising more than 300 islands, is famous for its tropical marine ecosystems where reef sharks act as key apex predators. While reef sharks generally avoid human interaction, spearfishing activities and close physical contact can trigger aggressive defensive responses.
The incident in Fiji follows an attack in December 2025, when a 26-year-old Chinese female blogger was bitten by a nurse shark in the Maldives. Nurse sharks are bottom-dwelling species abundant in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean archipelago, where tourists frequently wade into shallow lagoons under the mistaken assumption that the species is docile and harmless.
In February 2025, a tourist lost both arms while photographing a bull shark in shallow water in the Caribbean Sea. Bull sharks are known for inhabiting warm coastal regions and estuaries, ranking among the most formidable predators in tropical marine environments. Two months later, off the coast of Israel in the Mediterranean Sea, a scuba diver equipped with a selfie stick was killed by sharks while attempting to take a photograph underwater.
Risky Tour Practices and Ecological Harm
Dangerous interactions with wildlife are sometimes encouraged by commercial tour guides seeking to satisfy holidaymakers looking for viral video clips. Taiane Dalazen, a Brazilian lawyer and blogger who survived a nurse shark attack off the coast of Brazil in April, said a guide had fed predatory fish specifically to force interactions with tourists.
Feeding wild sharks alters their natural foraging habits and conditions apex predators to associate human presence with food. Brazil possesses an extensive Atlantic coastline featuring rich marine biodiversity, where artificial feeding practices in tourist zones can heighten the unpredictability of marine wildlife.
Marine biologist Eric Clua emphasized that bloggers frequently reframe encounters with sharks as harmless entertainment, warning that the ultimate cost of capturing such media can prove devastatingly high. Researchers also warned that physical contact causes severe stress to sharks, weakens their immune systems, and reduces their reproductive capacity.
Dogfish Carcasses Wash Ashore in New Jersey
The widespread warnings over shark selfies coincide with a separate marine incident along the eastern coast of the United States. Local resident Michelle Greenling discovered 29 carcasses of young spiny dogfish sharks washed ashore in Sea Isle City, New Jersey, noting that several of the animals exhibited distinct red markings on their bellies.
Sea Isle City is a coastal resort town situated along the Atlantic coast in Cape May County, New Jersey. Spiny dogfish are small, schooling sharks native to temperate waters of the North Atlantic Ocean, named for the sharp defensive spines located in front of their dorsal fins.
