Rare hammerhead sightings surprise beachgoers in Florida

Rare hammerhead shark sightings along the beaches of Palm Beach County, Florida, and the Treasure Coast have left residents surprised, with experts pointing to land-based shark fishing as a possible cause.

Area resident Chris Cochran encountered a massive hammerhead shark on a recent early morning while walking along Florida’s Jupiter Beach.

Chris Cochran encountered a massive hammerhead shark early Friday morning while walking along Jupiter Beach.

“I was in shock, obviously; you don’t see that every day,” Cochran said. “I mean I walked the beach quite a bit … I’ve seen a lot of turtles, right? That’s why I walk when I do, just to try to catch the baby turtles going in and the mamas coming out and stuff. But you don’t expect to see a hammerhead shark.”

Cochran initially mistook the shark for a dead turtle. “From a distance, I thought it was another dead turtle because I’ve seen big turtles upside down and dead on that beach. I just assumed it was another one of those,” he said. “But as I got closer, I could tell that obviously that it wasn’t… and then once I came from the back side of it. So, it wasn’t until I got to the front side and obviously realized it was a hammerhead.”

The hammerhead shark found along the Jupiter Inlet was taken by Florida Fish and Wildlife on Friday. Shark expert and conservationist Jim Abernethy explained that land-based shark fishing is a significant factor in the recent sightings.

Shark expert and conservationist Jim Abernethy.

“First of all, they don’t come in during the day because very few people go to the beach at night except for turtle enthusiasts,” said Abernethy, the operator of Shark Adventures. But so, they go there at night because no one will see them, and what they do is they kill other animals, including sharks, and then cut those up to use them for bait to attract even larger predatory sharks to the beach, and they do this all night long.”

Abernethy noted that land-based shark fishermen often remove sharks from the water temporarily to take photos before releasing them, but some sharks do not survive the ordeal.

“These drones dropped this big piece of fish in the water on a hook and then attract the sharks in, and then they reel it in, take their trophy picture, and then let it go,” Abernethy said. “In many cases, the sharks cannot take the fight because the majority of the fishermen that are fishing… the majority don’t have the right equipment.”

He added that land-based fishing often targets endangered species like hammerhead sharks.

“In Miami-Dade County as well as Martin County, the people voted to ban land-based shark fishing from their shores for safety reasons as well as for the safety of the sharks as well because it results in dead animals all over the place,” Abernethy said. “As well as the safety from our families not knowing that the beach they’re on in the morning is the same beach that had bait in the water all night.”

For beachgoers like Cochran, the sightings are unsettling.

“When we go swimming in the water, obviously it’s always something that’s on our mind, especially as parents when we have our kids in the water,” Cochran said. “I’m a little nervous, and I know that’s probably a fear that we don’t need to have. But knowing that they’re getting closer and they’re pretty big, some of the ones that I’ve heard being sighted are pretty large… It’s a little nerve-racking.”

Another sighting seen across sister station WPBF’s viewing area was from two people from Jensen Beach who were walking along Normandy Island on Hutchinson Island when they saw another big shark. A group of fishermen was struggling with a very large shark they were still reeling in. The fisherman says the big catch was safely released and swam away.