SOUTH PADRE ISLAND - Whether it's on the bay or ocean, odds are there's probably a shark not too far away; however experts say not to worry.

Experts tell us sharks are more afraid of you then you are of them.

Professional fishing guide, Hector Lopez, knows they can pop up when you least expect them to.

"You'll see the black tip fin that's the given usually when there's a lot of bait moving around when there's a lot of nervous bait they know there's something big out there and all of the sudden you'll see a the tip come out of the water," says Lopez.

Once summer comes around, Lopez says he starts to have more shark sightings. 

He tells us they're not only in the ocean, they're in the bay as well.

"This here is called mesquite flats, it's a good area to target shark you can see them out here coming from the ocean into our bay," says Lopez.

Mesquite flats are only about a mile and a half out from shore.

Lemon, nurse, and bull sharks have also been spotted, and lately one particular species has made their way into the Gulf.

CHANNEL 5 NEWS spoke to David Cisneros with Fishing Locos Works with the Harte Research Group out of Corpus Christi, a coastal conservation group that studies sharks.

"We have been catching a higher percentage of hammers and we've even seen the occasional tiger sharks caught," he says.

This weekend the group caught a seven foot shark off of Port Mansfield.

Seems professor with the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Christopher Taylor says one of the reasons more sharks are being sighted is that there are more people in the water and the population in Texas is growing.

"Shark populations have been growing in Texas over the last 12 to 15 years or so," he says.

Taylor says if an attack does happen, it's most likely a case of wrong place, wrong time.

For more information watch the video above.