'Problem sharks' Tests add weight to theory of rogue creatures

First was the French tourist, killed while swimming off SaintMartin in December 2020.

- Chris Baraniuk

The manager of a nearby water-sports club raced out in a dinghy to help, only to find her body, a gaping wound where part of her right thigh should have been. Then, a month later, another victim. Several Caribbean islands away, a woman snorkelling off St Kitts and Nevis was badly bitten on her left leg by a shark. Fortunately, she survived.

Soon after the fatal incident, Eric Clua, a marine biologist at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris, got a phone call. Island nations often ask for his help, he says, "because I am actually presenting a new vision ... I say, 'You don't have a problem with sharks, you have a problem with one shark." Human-shark conflicts are not solely the result of accidents or happenstance, Clua says. Instead, he says there are such things as problem sharks: bold individuals that may have learned, perhaps while still young, that humans are prey. It's a controversial stance, but Clua thinks that if it's true - and if he can identify and remove these problem sharks - it might dissuade authorities from taking extreme forms of retribution such as culls.