As the weather warms each spring, blacktip and spinner sharks head north along Florida coasts in pursuit of fish and seasonally comfortable waters. As Sun Sentinel reports and as seen in the image below, this year’s migration is well underway, which signals good news for saltwater anglers.
Blacktip sharks eat a variety of baitfish, including minnows, mullet, sardines, and Spanish mackerel—but gamefish, namely snook and tarpon, also prey on these smaller species. As large numbers of baitfish head north, they spark a feeding frenzy among both sharks and (less dramatically) gamefish, which emerge from their winter waters and swarm after these smaller species. The effect echoes a springtime hatch, an excellent condition for fishing, when freshwater gamefish feed on abundant insects.
So if you live along the coast, it’s a great time to get your hook in the ocean but an awful time to take a dip in it. Blacktip sharks, which grow up to five feet long, linger near shorelines and—albeit less menacing than bulls or great whites—pose a threat to humans.
We’ve provided a video of this year’s migration and a snapshot of it from 2013. Read Sun Sentinel’s detailed report about the migration here.
