Why is one Florida beach in particular a hot spot for sharks?

Thousands of migratory sharks pass by the Florida coast twice a year, in addition to multiple species of resident sharks in the water.

Transcript

00:00just a hundred yards or so off most beaches along the eastern seaboard is a super highway

00:07of tens of thousands of sharks. Their migratory pattern takes them right past New Smyrna Beach

00:13two times a year in the late spring and in the fall. What we found is particularly interesting

00:19is with these thousands of black tip sharks that they're passing New Smyrna Beach in Volusia County

00:25by the thousands. Even with that fact you're 30 times more likely to be struck by lightning than

00:32be bitten by a shark. Now over my shoulder is where the Halifax River and the Atlantic Ocean collide.

00:38It is a hotbed for bait fish and this is where you'll find a lot of the sharks feeding. The larger

00:44species the bull shark comes in and out of the Halifax and into the Atlantic freely and that's

00:49oftentimes when it collides with humans. The area near the Ponds Inlet also features sandbars and

00:55steep drop-offs which are natural gathering spots for sharks. And lastly the Sunshine State is also

01:01home to 13 different species of sharks who use Florida waters as a nursery grounds for their pups.

01:09Some places you have sharks that are basically resident. They stay there all year round. They're

01:13not even migratory and I think that's part of the attraction of New Smyrna is you have this

01:19influx of this seasonal influx of sharks overlaid on top of a resident population that's always there.

01:27And so no matter what you have sharks in the water you know pretty much any time of the year and so

01:32you've always got the opportunity for someone to have a negative encounter. Along New Smyrna Beach,

01:40Florida, I'm Leslie Hudson reporting.