FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida is wrestling with two major pieces of legislation that could reshape how the state manages its shark populations, even as fishing captains and conservationists square off over what’s really happening in the water.

Fishing enthusiasts say shark numbers are rising, reporting more encounters with sharks eating their catch “right off the line.”

Scientists say there is no evidence to support those claims, but one bill aims to find out. Another seeks to ban intentional shark feeding in federal waters off Florida’s coast, a move that would directly affect the state’s shark-diving industry.

On a recent November morning off South Florida, marine ecologists from Florida International University and a crew from Calypso Dive Charters set out to document the value of shark-dive tourism.

“People being able to come out and responsibly and safely see these animals is really important for not just shark conservation, but for ocean conservation,” said Mike Heithaus, a marine ecologist at FIU.

Using a bait box to attract the animals, the team was quickly surrounded by 11 lemon sharks and a bull shark.

For dive operator Kristopher Lynn, owner of Calypso Dive Charters, encounters like this are the core of his business — and a powerful educational tool.

“It’s elation,” Lynn said. “We see so many people that have come out of here with a smile on their face who were so scared of sharks before they got in the water. And then they see that these are actually very gentle creatures.”

But Lynn fears his business could be upended by the Florida Safe Seas Act of 2025, which would prohibit shark feeding in federal waters. He argues dive operators use minimal bait.

“We’re using limited amounts of chum,” he said. “We’re not putting a large amount of bait in the water to attract sharks over. We’re just basically going down there and checking them out.”

Florida’s fishing community strongly disagrees. Many charter captains argue bait boxes used by divers are conditioning sharks to associate boat engines with food.

“There are certain times of the year you cannot land a fish because the sharks will literally tear you up,” said Capt. Dean Panos of Double D Charters, who has fished South Florida waters for three decades.

Panos said he has noticed an uptick in depredation incidents.

“Probably 15 to 20 times a year you’ll get chased, probably five to 10 times a year you’ll get eaten,” he said. “And that’s not something that would ever happen. The last five years have been bad.”

Many anglers claim that Florida has experienced a shark population boom in recent years.

“We’ve put a lot of conservation on sharks, and now sharks are almost totally protected, so there’s actually too many of them compared to the amount of fish in the water,” Panos said.

However, this is anecdotal and not based on scientific data.

“No, this is from what I see daily,” he said. “We would never see this many sharks.”

Still, concerns from the fishing industry helped spur Sen. Rick Scott’s SHARKED Act, which seeks to bring together fisheries managers, shark scientists and other stakeholders to study shark behavior and recommend solutions to reduce depredation.

“My goal is to bring everybody involved in the process together so we come up with a solution to deal with all these shark encounters, and that’s what the SHARKED Act does,” Scott said. “We’ll bring them together and come up with what the right solution is to stop these encounters.”

But conservationists warn the bill does not prohibit the task force from proposing shark culls — raising concerns that killing sharks could be presented as a management option. In 2022, nearly a dozen bull sharks were killed in a single Florida tournament covered by Local 10 News.

“Depredation is an issue. It’s not a trivial matter that we should ignore,” said Yannis Papastamatiou, a marine ecologist at FIU.

Papastamatiou agrees depredation is a real issue but rejects population control as a solution.

A recent five-year global study co-authored by Papastamatiou, Heithaus and 150 researchers found that 60% to 70% of global reef shark populations have already disappeared due to overfishing.

“They grow slowly, they don’t reproduce very often,” Papastamatiou said. “They don’t have many offspring. So populations can’t explode. Populations can increase, and we may be seeing some evidence of that, but it’s going to be a slow, more gradual increase.”

But for anglers like Panos, something has to be done.

“I think that you have to have a means to control the population of sharks compared to the amount of fish in the ocean,” he said. “So if there’s too many predators, there has to be a way.”

Scientists warn that removing sharks threatens the balance of marine ecosystems. Sharks maintain healthy fisheries by preying on sick or weak animals and helping prevent disease outbreaks.

“We want to get this right for the oceans, for fishermen, for the dive industry — to make sure everybody can enjoy the oceans and we have healthy, intact ecosystems supporting people and their livelihoods,” Heithaus said.

The SHARKED Act has passed the U.S. House and the Senate Commerce Committee but has not yet received a full Senate vote. The Florida Safe Seas Act remains in committee in the House.

Both bills could reshape the future of shark tourism, recreational fishing and marine conservation in Florida.

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