As search goes on for missing swimmer, experts say people shouldn’t have teased sharks
Nature groups say warnings not to approach the fish went unheeded, but still unclear why man was apparently mauled: ‘They are not creatures that attack’
Experts said Tuesday that they were baffled as to why a swimmer may have been attacked by a shark in an area of the Israeli coast that has long seen close encounters between the marine predators and beachgoers who sometimes seek them out.
Shivers of endangered dusky and sandbar sharks have been swimming close to the area of Hadera in central Israel for years, attracting onlookers who approach the sharks. This drew pleas from conservation groups for authorities to keep people away from the creatures.
Nature groups and experts have said those warnings went unheeded.
“I didn’t sleep all night, asking the question why it happened. There were no signs pointing to an incident that was so fast and catastrophic,” the University of Haifa’s Aviad Scheinin told Channel 12 news. “There was a situation with dead fish and people going into the water and feeding the sharks, which created less than optimal conditions for this.”
Over the past few days, fish die-offs in the Hadera Stream and the nearby Alexander Stream have attracted sharks to the shores of Hadera and Beit Yannai. The sharks eat the dead, sick and wounded fish as they enter the sea, helping keep natural waters clean.
The area, where warm water released by a nearby power plant flows into the sea, has for years attracted dozens of sharks between the months of October and May.
היא פשוט נופלת עליו, עוד אחד מהתיעודים ההזויים מהימים האחרונים בחדרה. pic.twitter.com/NkbM8tO2cQ
— שלמה ⛈️ מזג אוויר (@MezgAvirIL) April 22, 2025
“They are not creatures that attack. We have seen them here for many years. You don’t go out into the wilderness and stroke a lion. It is not logical to tease them and jump on them,” said Itamar Avishai of the EcoOcean nonprofit.
Israelis flocked in large numbers to the beach during the weeklong holiday of Passover, sharing the waters with a dozen or more sharks. Some tugged on the sharks’ fins, while others threw them fish to eat. Dusky sharks can grow to four meters (13 feet) long and weigh about 350 kilograms (750 pounds). Sandbar sharks are smaller, growing to about 2.5 meters (8 feet) and 100 kilograms (220 pounds).
Police and rescue workers launched a search along the coast after reports that a shark attacked a swimmer on a beach near the city of Hadera on Monday. The Fire and Rescue Authority announced Tuesday afternoon that “findings” had been brought to the forensic institute for identification.
The man’s identity was not released, but Hebrew-language media said the man in his 40s from Petah Tikva had gone to swim with the sharks.
כל שנה מפרסמים ברשות הטבע והגנים אזהרות למתרחצים בחופי חדרה, שם יש התלהקות כרישים באזור תחנת הכוח, ומוסיפים הנחיות להתנהגות נאותה (להתרחק בעיקר), ועדיין ישראלים ימשיכו לנסות לתפוס להם בזנב ואפילו לזרוק עליהם גלשן. כריש זו חיית טרף ואין לכם מה לחפש שם לידה
צילום: שי קבסה רט"ג pic.twitter.com/WsHr4wPbSM— ilana curiel (@ilanacuriel) April 21, 2025
People on the beach filmed Monday’s incident, an extremely rare shark attack in Israeli waters, with their phones. One man could be heard exclaiming, “Wow, wow, he’s with the shark, he’s fighting him,” as the man was seen in the distance. “They’re eating him, eating the man… Can’t see him.”
According to the Kan public broadcaster, the missing man may have had fish that he had caught attached to his belt, which could have attracted the shark.
The Ynet news site reported that the missing man is married and a father, and said that he entered the water in order to swim near the sharks, after reading reports that they had been gathering in the area.
An unnamed friend of the man told Ynet that “I warned him against entering the sea.” Now, he said, “his wife is calling me all the time, I don’t know what to tell her.”
Yigael Ben-Ari, head of marine rangers at the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, said it was not known how the man behaved around the sharks. But he said the public should know not to enter the water when sharks are present and not to touch or play with them.
One video shared by Israeli media showed a shark swimming right up to bathers in thigh-deep water.
“What a huge shark!” the man filming exclaims, as the shark approaches him. “Whoa! He’s coming toward us!”
“Don’t move!” he implores a boy standing nearby, who replies: “I’m leaving.”
The man then asks: “What, are you afraid of the sharks?”
The behavior flew in the face of the advice of the parks authority.
“Like every wild animal, the sharks’ behavior may be unpredictable,” the authority said in a statement.
This would be just the third recorded shark attack in Israel, according to Ben-Ari. One person was killed in an attack in the 1940s.
He said swimming is prohibited in the area, but swimmers enter the water anyway.
“It would have been appropriate to take steps to preserve and regulate public safety, but over the years, chaos has developed in the area,” the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, an environmental group, said in a statement.
It said fishermen, boats, divers, surfers and snorkelers interacted dangerously with a wild animal that “is not accustomed to being around crowds of people.”
SPNI said further steps were needed to prevent similar incidents, like designating a safe zone from where people could view the sharks without swimming close to them.
The Times of Israel Community.