Should you worry about sharks swimming near you during Myrtle Beach, SC spring break?

With spring in the near future, sharks might also accompany the warm water.

The Myrtle Beach area has had several recent shark sightings recently, but the summertime will also feature a plethora of sharks.

“As waters warm, we get a whole suite of species; there are usually 15 plus species that are found,” South Carolina Department of Natural Resources Marine Biologist Bryan Frazier said. “The most common are going to be smaller sharks such as Atlantic Sharpnose sharks, Bonnet Heads, Finetooth and Blacknose sharks.”

Frazier has been with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources for 23 years and has overseen the shark research and monitoring program since 2007. While it’s hard to spot sharks near the beach, Frazier said they’re there.

“If you’re flying over Myrtle Beach, you can see big sharks roaming around,” Frazier added. “They might even be swimming around people, and you would never know.”

While the news might sound scary, the danger is minimal Frazier said. The most common sharks during the summer are smaller, larger sharks who don’t typically congregate near the front beaches, and coupled with the fact that the last shark fatality recorded in South Carolina was in the 1840s in Charleston Harbor, shark attacks are not a serious concern Frazier said.

“They have other things on their mind,” he said. “We’re just we’re just not on the menu. If we were, a lot of people would get bit every day because there are a lot of sharks in the water.”

He added that despite the number of sharks in the water, South Carolina averages about four bites a year and most are accidents.

“Most of those are simply a mistaken identity, where a shark is swimming through an area feeding and accidentally interacts with a person,” he said. “So the bites that we have tend to not be aggressive in nature.”

Frazier recommended swimmers avoid wearing shiny objects, getting in the water while bleeding and avoiding schools of bait to ensure sharks don’t accidentally mistake them for prey.

Frazier noted that large shark sightings, such as a great white, are rarely seen near shore as fishers typically spot them in deeper water near reefs. He also said white sharks appear off the coast of Myrtle Beach in the winter months, but they’re generally just passing through as part of seasonal migration.

“They start moving down our coast really, after Thanksgiving, as water temperatures cool in the Northeast,” Frazier said. “Once they get along the southeast coast, they tend to be really transitory. They’re always moving; they’re not really hanging out for a long time in any one particular area. They’re just kind of on a search pattern and trying to find food sources.”

Frazier added that Blacktip and Sandbar sharks are also relatively common in Myrtle Beach waters during summer. Larger sharks like the Lemon, Bull, Scalloped, Carolina Hammerheads and Great Hammerheads are also found in smaller numbers.