Shark population increases
Study says number of great whites rising off California
LOS ANGELES — A new census study shows there are more than 2,400 white sharks off California and suggests existing protective measures should be maintained because they are increasing the size and health of the population.
The study by a 10-member team led by George Burgess, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research, bolsters a recent National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration determination that the eastern Pacific Ocean population of great white sharks does not warrant listing them under the Endangered Species Act.
“That we found these sharks are doing OK, better than OK, is a real positive in light of the fact that other shark populations are not necessarily doing as well,” Burgess said.
The team, like NOAA, began researching the status of the great white shark population in 2013 after the environmental groups Oceana, Shark Stewards and the Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition calling for endangered species protection.
The environmental groups were reacting to the first census of great whites ever attempted. Conducted by researchers at UC Davis and Stanford University and published in the journal Biology Letters in 2011, the census estimated only 219 adult and sub-adult great whites lived off the Central California coast and perhaps double that many were in the entire northeastern Pacific Ocean.
The great white shark, which can reach 21 feet, weigh 3½ tons and hunts waters shared by surfers, scuba divers and swimmers, feeds at the top of the food chain The surprisingly low estimate prompted environmentalists to launch fundraising campaigns to “save the great white shark from extinction” and file the petitions that made Carcharodon carcharias the first candidate for listing as an endangered species in California ocean waters.
The UC Davis/Stanford census also drew sneers from shark experts. The actual white shark population, critics said, was likely 10 times larger — a result of state and federal laws curbing pollution, banning nearshore gill netting, protecting sharks and halting the slaughter of marine mammals they prey on.
Caught in the middle were wildlife authorities who accepted the petitions for consideration because the census study was, at the time, the only available science on the subject that had been published in an internationally recognized scientific journal.
Earlier this year, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife both determined that listing was not warranted.