director of the florida program for shark research at the florida natural museum of history told abc news a region just off the coast of long island also served as a nursery for sand tiger sharks several years ago a species believed to be responsible for one of the recent bites naylor said the juveniles which are fairly autonomous and independent after they are born are more likely to make mistakes than their adult counterparts naylor said in addition efforts to clear up waterways in major port cities like the tristate area have led to cleaner waters and a rebound in marine life sam muka a professor of marine science history at the stevens institute of technology in hoboken new jersey told abc news more long island shark attacks a timeline of the increasing phenomenon up until about two decades ago new york and new jersey historically dumped their trash as far as 204 miles into the ocean muka said there are theories that sharks are not so much moving northward because of climate change but rather returning to waters they previously frequented muka said another reason why there may appear to be more sharks off the east coast is due to an increase in conservation in the us heithaus said while shark populations are still considered critical globally marine biologists are beginning to see the effects of effective fisheries management which is then leading to population increases across a number of species that provide food for sharks heithaus said nature is pretty resilient if you give it half a chance naylor said a person runs along the shore as a great white shark swims just meters away on the cape cod national sea shore on the eastern side of cape cod mass on july 15 2022 joseph preziosoafp via getty images sulikowski described the vast majority of attacks as likely a shark especially a juvenile taking an exploratory bite once the shark determines that the human isnt what they want to eat isnt part of their diet they swim away leaving puncture wounds or scrape marks in their wake sulikowski added for the most part these are these smaller coastal sharks that are probably just getting confused he said more baby white sharks cant tell difference between humans and seals study it is also conceivable that some of the shark attacks occur in the surf zone because the mixture of water and sand where the waves break makes it difficult for the sharks to see and allow them to mistake human hands and feet for fish naylor said adding that more than 60 of bites occur in lowvisibility water theyre not mindless killing machines heithaus said sharks are still a fairly mysterious creature muka said adding its still difficult to tag them and study things like where they are breeding hunting and the way they behave theres all these kinds of unknown variables including climate change which is continuing in a way that we just cant really predict muka