After two years of drone surveillance, a new study published on June 2 by the California State University Long Beach Shark Lab shows some beaches in San Diego and Santa Barbara almost always have great white sharks swimming near people.
According to the study, those in Carpinteria, of Santa Barbara County, and San Diego County’s Del Mar had the most encounters, where 97 percent of the time people were in the ocean 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 white sharks in Southern California used to only frequent the beaches 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.
Rex said rising water temperatures create ideal living conditions for adolescent white sharks who can’t retain their body heat, and the shallow depths help them to avoid large predators.
Born around 5 feet in length, juvenile white sharks first feed on smaller prey such as stingrays, which are abundant along Southern California shores.
According to the study, surfers, swimmers, and paddle boarders past the break of the waves were typically seen closest to the sharks.
Rex said more than 50 percent of the time, sharks were within 100 yards of the wave break.
“That’s just the average. Oftentimes they were much closer than that,” he said.
Remote-controlled drones make for a perfect tool to study the sharks in their natural habitat, according to Rex.
“Drones are a new evolving technology. They allow us to better understand sharks because we can fly really high in the air, and we don’t have to disturb the animals to study them,” he said.
Although the number of shark encounters has gone up, shark attacks have not, according to researchers.
Typically, researchers say, sharks are not interested in people.
“These sharks were not just close to the wave break. They were actually zigzagging between surfers every single day, and we didn’t see an increase in bite rates,” Rex said.
He additionally said they never saw aggressive behavior from any of the sharks studied.
Studies from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife indicate shark attacks have not increased in California since the mid to late 1900s.
The agency reported just over 200 such attacks or encounters since the 1950s, with only 15 resulting in fatalities.
But, they report, encounters have gone up by around 10 each decade since the 80s, with 33 in the 2010s and 10 so far since 2020.
One of the lab’s ongoing hypotheses could be a good sign for Southern California surfers.
According to Rex, since the white sharks are becoming accustomed to humans in the water, they’re more familiar with them as the sharks grow and start to seek larger prey.
“People are just another thing in their habitat. They’re not prey, they’re not a threat. Humans aren’t on the menu for the sharks,” Rex said.
When they do get close to people, they’re usually just checking them out and becoming aware of their environment as they grow up, he said.
“There’s no parental care for these white sharks. So, a lot of these animals need to figure out what things are and [what’s in] their environment,” Rex said.
The sooner white sharks can identify what a surfer is, Rex said, the better, since historically they are attacked the most, because of the amount of time they spend in the ocean and their boards—especially shortboards—resemble the outline of seals.
As such, he said, they’re sometimes mistaken for similar-sized prey.
However, “because they spent so much time around surfers in Southern California when they were growing up, we think it may actually help reduce some of those accidental mistaken identity bites,” he said.
