UNE expert weighs in after rare deadly shark attack

When a man from Massachusetts died after being attacked by a shark, several reporters reached out to UNE’s shark expert, James Sulikowski, Ph.D., professor of Marine Sciences.

The 26-year old man was boogie boarding off the coast of Cape Cod when the attack occurred. It was the first shark-attack death in Massachusetts in more than eight decades.

Sulikowski says a shark attacking a person is a rare occurrence.

"I think that when you look at the big picture statistically, the odss are very low that you are going to be involved in some form of attack or incident with a shark,” he told WCSH. “The statistics are really in our favor.”

Sulikowski explained that sharks follow a food source, and when humans are in the same area there can be unfortunate interactions.

“Any time you have this type of interaction with a shark, whether it's survival or a fatality, it's a terrible thing,” Sulikowski told WBUR. “I think that gets us afraid to be in the water. The first thing is to be diligent.”

Sulikowski says be aware of your surroundings and heed the warnings of lifeguards. He told Yahoo Lifestyle dawn and dusk are bad times to go in the water because those are the times when sharks are most active.