UAE residents should not worry about sharks in the country's waters, an expert on the Arabian Gulf's marine life has said.
Dr Alec Moore says swimmers and snorkellers should be more concerned about the dangers posed by high-speed watercraft such as jet skis.
His comments came after a video of a shark off Dubai gained more than half a million views when it was posted this week by TikTok user MotorVisto.
The video appears to show a bronze whaler shark, according to Dr Moore, a lecturer in marine top predator conservation at Bangor University in the UK.
Dr Moore has carried out extensive fieldwork on sharks and rays in the Arabian Gulf, including the UAE.
“In terms of safety, many people pay for the privilege to see sharks in the wild, and incidents of sharks biting humans are extremely rare,” he said.
“Personally, I would be far more worried about dangerous watercraft like jetskis as a safety risk to swimmers and divers.”
He added: “People are probably more at risk using a toaster or standing under a coconut tree.”
Which sharks live in UAE waters?
There are numerous types of shark or shark-like creatures in UAE waters, including some that are endemic to the region, meaning they are not found elsewhere.
Among the native shark-like rays is the sawfish, which has a snout that resembles a chainsaw blade. All sawfish are classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
“They can be huge animals, up to five or six metres,” said Dr Moore. “They’re now effectively extinct in the Gulf from overfishing.”
Wedgefish or guitarfish, which are also rays, are found locally and are fished for their prized dorsal fins.
“They’ve been depleted locally and globally because of these high-value fins,” Dr Moore said. Some types are found in very shallow areas of the Arabian Gulf, including in UAE waters.
Among the true sharks found in UAE waters is the milk shark, which is typically little more than one-metre long and is frequently caught by fishers.
Carpet sharks often live under coral, while bull sharks, tiger sharks and whale sharks are also found in the area.
The region’s importance as a shark habitat is highlighted by the smoothtooth blacktip species being found only around Kuwait, and off Oman and Yemen in the Gulf of Aden.
Is there any risk?
In the Middle East, there are occasional shark attacks in the Red Sea. Some have been fatal, but total numbers are very low, typically one to two a year. There have also been isolated incidents in the Mediterranean, including off the coast of Israel.
Previous research reported by The National indicates the rate of attacks in the Red Sea may have risen slightly, but this has been attributed to increased human use of the water rather than the animals becoming more aggressive.
A study published last year, based on global data, found some apparent attacks by sharks are actually motivated by self defence, with sharks perceiving the humans as a threats. Such incidents happen when someone has interfered with the animal, for example, by trying to spear it or when it has become caught in netting.
People are typically seen as being a greater danger to sharks than vice versa, with intensive fishing and human-induced habitat loss having caused populations of many species in and around the Arabian Gulf to have fallen in recent decades.
The creatures are caught as food, while their fins and liver oil are used in various products.
Dr Moore said that there had been “a lot of habitat loss through infilling of intertidal and coastal margins” as the Gulf has been developed, something that has affected, for example, sawfish and wedgefish.
Marine Protected Areas are seen as offering some benefits, although these may be limited by the fact that sharks move in and out of them.
“Some governments in the region have some measures in place to help protect shark populations, [such as] bans on certain species being landed [by fishers],” Dr Moore said.
The UAE strengthened rules to protect some shark species in 2023, on top of bans on catching at-risk species.
