There isn’t a single simple reason “why there are more shark attacks,” but several overlapping trends are making encounters more frequent and more visible in the news.

Not actually a shark “boom”

Scientists tracking global shark bite databases note that, over the long term, shark attacks rise and fall year to year, but there is no clear proof that sharks are suddenly targeting humans more than before.

What has changed more dramatically is human behavior along coasts: more people, more hours in the water, and more development in shark habitat, which naturally increases encounter odds.

More people in the water

Several factors have put record numbers of people into shark territory:

  • Coastal population growth and tourism mean many more swimmers, surfers, and divers in traditional shark habitats than a few decades ago.
  • Popular destinations like Réunion Island saw a tourism boom that coincided with a spike in shark incidents, largely because the sea was suddenly being used much more by humans.
  • Even short time frames show this: early 2026 already has multiple reported incidents simply because millions of people are back on tropical beaches and in warm waters after holiday periods.

Changing oceans and climate

Environmental shifts are also drawing sharks closer to shore or into new places:

  • Warmer sea temperatures linked to climate patterns such as El Niño and longer‑term climate change can shift shark ranges and migration routes, sometimes placing them where people aren’t used to seeing them.
  • Pollution, overfishing, and large‑scale industrial fishing can reduce sharks’ normal prey offshore, forcing them to hunt closer to coasts where humans swim and surf.
  • Infrastructure and runoff can alter salinity; for example, irrigation projects and heavy rainfall can create brackish coastal zones that bull sharks and other species like, right where people enter the water.

Local “perfect storm” conditions

Many clusters of attacks turn out to involve a local mix of conditions rather than a global pattern:

  • In places like Réunion, researchers point to a combination of habitat changes, altered runoff, overfishing, and tourism, but still emphasize that no single cause fully explains the spike.
  • Recent incidents near river mouths or after heavy rains have been linked to brackish water plus splashing and bait sources, which create a “perfect storm” that attracts sharks to swimmers very close to shore.
  • Increased coastal fishing near swimmers, including chumming and discarding fish remains, can inadvertently train sharks to associate near‑shore zones with easy food, raising the risk of bites.

Media, social networks, and perception

Even if the true risk per swimmer stays low, it feels like shark attacks are exploding because:

  • 24/7 news and social media now broadcast almost every incident worldwide, often with dramatic language like “shark attack” and “horror story” that amplifies fear.
  • Dedicated forums, subreddits, and news sites catalog and discuss every case in detail, making clusters highly visible and giving the impression of an unstoppable upward trend.
  • Researchers studying language in news coverage note that the phrase “shark attack” carries a powerful psychological impact, reinforcing the idea of deliberate aggression rather than rare, often mistaken‑identity bites.

TL;DR: There are more shark attacks mainly because more people are using coastal waters in ways that overlap with shark habitat, while climate and environmental changes draw sharks closer to shore, and modern media makes every incident instantly visible worldwide.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.