State’s Leading Shark Research Lab Could Be Devoured by Budget Cuts

Warning signs for shark sightings in Long Beach, Calif., on May 16, 2017. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

Facing a cut in state funding, California’s lead shark research lab has until June before it pulls the plug on its high-tech shark mitigation system, according to Cal State Long Beach Shark Lab Director Chirs Lowe.

“It’s getting pretty serious,” Mr. Lowe told ABC 7 news in an interview Thursday. “If we don’t get more funding, we’re going to have to pull all of the equipment out of the water. We won’t be able to monitor sharks along California anymore.”

In an X post Tuesday, the shark lab announced it was seeking funding starting in June, without which “major facets of the program will shut down.”

The lab will need about $7 million to keep its programs alive and is looking for help from private donors or nonprofits, Mr. Lowe told the news channel. Since California created a beach safety program in 2018, the lab has acquired high tech receivers, buoys, and underwater shark monitors, allowing it to track potential rogue sharks and alert lifeguards, he said.

“It’s considered one of the best shark mitigation programs in the world,” Mr. Lowe said.

Donations to the shark lab directly help in research relevant for fisheries conservation, shark biology, and marine environmental health, according to the lab’s donation page.

“Using cutting edge technology such as telemetry is quite expensive and the costs of supplies like acoustic transmitters can quickly become out of reach for most student grants,” a statement on its website says.

Acoustic telemetry is used with transmitters, emitting high frequency pulses to help track marine life, according to the National Ocean Service.

A shark lab study showed that at some California beaches, people in the ocean are near sharks most of the time. Above, a great white shark. Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

The lab uses donations for computers, telemetry equipment, student research grants, student travel funds, and scholarships, according to its website.

After two years of drone surveillance, the lab released a study in June that showed some beaches in San Diego and Santa Barbara almost always have great white sharks swimming near people.

According to the study, the most encounters were in Carpinteria, in Santa Barbara County, and San Diego County’s Del Mar, where 97 percent of the time people were in the ocean, they were near juvenile great white sharks, with at least five spotted on multiple days surveyed.

Beaches in Solana Beach and Coronado in San Diego County had the second most with at least three seen each survey day.

Researchers told The Epoch Times in an interview that white sharks in Southern California used to frequent the beaches only during summer when the water was warmer, but that has since changed as water temperatures rise.

“One of the cool things about this study was that we saw that it wasn’t just a couple of months, it was actually two years that they were at these beaches,” said Patrick Rex, a research field technician with the Shark Lab.