CCU’s Shark Man caught in ‘jaws’ of media frenzy
by Bell
If you google the words “Dan Abel shark attack,” you will get a good idea of how Coastal Carolina University’s resident shark biologist spent his summer.
Abel did a total of 27 media interviews, many for major national broadcast and print organizations, in the wake of the shark attacks on the North Carolina coast in June and July. His appearances (on air and online) on the CBS Evening News, CNN, NBC News, the Weather Channel (“Wake Up with Al”) and in the pages of USA Today, the Charlotte Observer and other news outlets raised Abel’s profile as an expert in his field and spread the name of Coastal Carolina University to new audiences.
“I didn’t really say anything that I haven’t been saying for years,” says Abel. “I warned against overreacting. I emphasized that shark attacks are low-likelihood events because humans aren’t naturally appetizing to sharks.”
Normally, according to Abel, when a shark bites a bather, it’s because the shark, with its poor eyesight in murky coastal waters, mistakenly thinks it’s pursuing a fish. If it does bite a hand or a foot, it usually releases immediately.
Abel’s voice of reason, scholarship and experience provided a welcome counterbalance in the media frenzy that attended the attacks in North Carolina, where two teenage swimmers were maimed by sharks on the same day in Oak Island. A total of eight shark attacks occurred on North Carolina beaches within a three-week period in June and July.
The reason that Abel was so hotly pursued by the country’s top media on this story is a fortunate accident of timing. The National Geographic Channel had produced a documentary, “United Sharks of America,” featuring Abel prominently in interviews. Nat Geo sent out a news release promoting the show just before the sharks began to bite in North Carolina, which prompted the CBS Evening News to call Abel to comment on the attacks. This appearance led other news organizations to seek him out, and soon enough he was in demand all over.
Abel was traveling for much of the period when he was news-hounded. As a result, he was filmed and interviewed in California and Texas as well as at his home in Pawleys Island. “When I was in Houston, CNN picked me up in a limo and drove me to a studio for a live interview with Brooke Baldwin,” he says. When CNN’s “Out Front With Erin Burnett” called him the next day, he was getting ready to board a plane and so declined to do another on-camera interview, though he provided background information.
A month ago, when he was doing the bulk of the interviews, he stressed that it was too early to say whether or not there has been a statistical increase in the shark population along the Carolina coast this summer. Now, having a better perspective on the numbers of bull sharks and their movement, Abel believes it’s safe to say that, yes, “this has been a very unusual year.”
