Great white sharks more common in California waters than swimmers think, study says

A new study found that great white sharks are more common at some California beaches than was commonly thought. 

The two-year-long study conducted by the Long Beach State Shark Lab used video and photo documentation from over 1,500 drone flights over 26 beaches in Southern California to analyze the behavior of juvenile white sharks. 

The footage shows great white sharks swimming close to people who were surfing, swimming, or paddle boarding in the water. In some cases, sharks came within 60 feet of swimmers or surfers.

In particular, juvenile great whites tend to “aggregate” in groups along the shores near beaches before maturing and leaving the area, according to the study published in the journal PLOS.

“At aggregation sites, water users were found in proximity to sharks 97% of the days surveyed,” said Patrick Rex, the graduate student who conducted the study. 

“The juvenile white sharks were often observed within 50 yards of where the waves break, putting surfers and stand-up paddle boarders in the closest proximity to sharks at the aggregation sites. Most of the time water users didn’t even know the sharks were there, but we could easily see them from the air,” he added.

Luckily, the study did not find any shark bites recorded in the locations where the study was conducted. 

The findings of the study could help California beachgoers to be more aware of the potential dangers of swimming in the ocean and how to behave safely in the water. 

“I think people will be shocked by these findings — we never expected to see so many encounters every day with no incidents,” said professor of marine biology and director of shark lab Christopher Lowe. 

“We’re also using drones to examine how white sharks behave when they are near people and how they may tell the difference between surfers and swimmers,” he added.