Tourism-driven shark aggregation and emerging risk governance challenges in a Brazilian marine protected area

Marine protected areas (MPAs) increasingly face governance challenges associated with wildlife-based tourism. In the Archipelago of Fernando de Noronha (Brazil), four non-fatal incidents involving the Atlantic nurse shark, Ginglymostoma cirratum (Bonnaterre, 1788) were recorded between 2025 and 2026 at the same site on the island. All events occurred within an artificially induced shark aggregations associated with tourism vessels and recurrent food provisioning. Using a descriptive case-study approach supported by local records and comparison with international shark incident databases (ISAF and GSAF), we evaluated ecological drivers and governance implication of these events. Although nurse sharks’ bites are globally rare and typically non-fatal, the spatial recurrence and contextual similarity of these incidents indicate localized behavioral conditioning linked to predictable anthropogenic food subsidies. The findings highlight regulatory enforcement gaps and increasing spatial overlap between tourist and conditioned predators in shallow recreational zones. This case illustrates how tourism-induced wildlife conditioning can generate emerging safety risks and management challenges in MPAs. Strengthened compliance monitoring, regulation of nautical tourism intensity, and structured environmental education are recommended to mitigate human-wildlife conflicts while maintaining conservation objectives.