One of the creepiest news stories of the season is the spate of violent shark attacks of beachgoers on North Carolina’s Outer Banks.

I’ve been going to the area since I was 18 months old, and while, naturally, I can’t remember back that far, this summer’s toll of seven attacks so far this year does seem quite high. The video was shot last year and seems to suggest that habitat changes have been underway for a while.

So what’s causing it?

Is global warming bringing coastal waters closer to 80 degrees, which draws in more sharks? Likewise, are hotter days making more people want to splash in the surf? Or are sports fishermen to blame by using aggressive chum bait schemes close in to shore to lure sharks?

I don’t know, but for a stunning display of aquatic nature at its most vicious check out this vide of a shark feeding frenzy near Cape Lookout, N.C.

It may be too soon to tell if the “Jaws” encounters are repelling beachgoers. Perhaps they are attracting more visitors.

But we can’t say we weren’t warned. The Virginian-Pilot ran a piece back in March quoting North Carolina university researchers as saying that the number of juvenile bull sharks in and around the banks was growing sharply. I blogged on the findings a few months ago.

Researchers reported 113 from 1965 to 2011. Since 2012, they’ve found 36 bulls. What’s more, they have tracked female Great White Sharks not only in Pamlico Sound, but near its western shores which are very shallow.

What’s drawing so many? In March it wasn’t so warm.

I am especially fascinated by this phenomenon not only because I go to the beach there when I can, but my family lived in the area for decades and I went all over the Pamlico Sound and the Pamlico River by boat. On rare occasions, sharks would swim way up rivers, especially if there was a summer drought and the water was warm and especially salty.

I also scuba dive and see sharks all the time. If you are slow, make no sudden moves and have nothing terribly flashy on you, they usually leave you alone.

I once went on a shark dive in the Bahamas where we kneeled on the sand at 50 feet. They let loose the chum. Sharks appeared out of nowhere for the feed. Strangely, they just didn’t rip in in a free-for-all that you see in the video. Instead, they seemed to display a certain table manners etiquette — “After you, please.” I’ve seen editors at story meetings behave much worse.

The probability of global warming being involved does sound plausible. We will be seeing this more and more. Steve Nash, a retired University of Richmond professor, wrote a deeply reported book, “Virginia Climate Fever,” that was published last year. After drawing together data, he comes up with frightening scenarios of which Richmond might be like maybe 50 or 100 years from now.

Alligators at Pony Pasture?