Great white shark population along California coast booming foxnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from foxnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Why a Rise in Great White Sharks Off the California Coast is Good News
On 5/25/21 at 6:51 AM EDT
The population of great white sharks off the coast of central California is increasing, according to a study, which means populations of other animals like seals and fish may also be healthy.
Between 2011 and 2018, and over the course of more than 2,500 hours, a team of researchers identified nearly 300 adult and sub-adult individual great white sharks at Farallon Island, Año Nuevo Island, and Tomales Point three sites where the apex predators are known to gather.
A similar study conducted in 2011 found 219 great whites, which suggests that numbers are slowly increasing in the area.
The number of great white sharks spotted off the coast of California has increased by as much as 35 per cent within the last 10 years, researchers said. A study, published in Biological Conservation this month, involved researchers monitoring the great white shark population in California between Monterey Bay, the Farallon Islands and Bodega Bay – an area often called “the red triangle”. Researchers found that there has been a modest increase of.
Great White Shark (Getty Images) The finding, a result of eight years of photographing and identifying individual sharks in the group, is an important indicator of the overall health of the marine environment in which the sharks live, Oregon State University researcher and study co-author Taylor Chapple said in a statement.
Why is California s Great White shark population rising?
A variety of factors may be contributing to the rise in the population of the predator, which can grow up to 20 feet long and live to be 70 years old. The Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, as well as a reduction in gillnets off the coast of California, are assisting in the recovery, according to Chapple.
The population of great white sharks living off the coast of California in the red triangle is nearing 300, up from slightly more than 200, 10 years ago, a new study has found.