CALIFORNIA — By now it’s a familiar, but still heart-pounding, scene for wildlife filmmaker Carlos Guana: Two young boys idle on their boogie boards in the Malibu shallows. A great white shark much longer than their boards idles just beneath their dangling feet.
The boys never saw the shark, and they didn’t heed Guana shouting warnings from the shore. Drone footage from the encounter has been viewed millions of times. And in the two years of near-daily filming since, Guana has come to realize it was just an average day along California’s coast.
“With kids there have been quite a few instances where the shark gets very very close, sometimes right underneath them, [and] they have no idea,” Gauna said. “It can raise your heart rate a little bit when you see that.”
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However, Gauna said as often as people and sharks come close to each other unknowingly, there is very little danger of an attack. For the most part, Gauna said, the sharks are indifferent to the presence of people in the water.
A study published on Friday by researchers at California State University, Long Beach’s Shark Lab found that people are close to sharks about 97 percent of the time they are in the ocean, yet it is highly unlikely that the proximity leads to a bite.
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The first of its kind in the United States, the two-year study conducted by researcher Patrick Rex and his team at the Shark Lab found that juvenile white sharks come close to people very often, but always moved around them or simply ignored them completely.
In California, white sharks are a protected species. Many believed that the animal’s protected status would significantly raise the population along the Golden State coastline, potentially spelling danger for beachgoers. During the study, however, Rex found no evidence that an increased population of sharks led to an increase in attacks or bites.
“Despite these rising trends, there is little evidence of increased frequency of shark bites on humans in southern California,” Rex wrote in the study. “Over the 2-year survey period, only one minor potential unprovoked shark bite was reported across southern California at one of the aggregation sites.”
Researchers tracked sharks with drones over 26 beaches from Santa Barbara to San Diego, using aerial surveys of nearshore ocean waters to document how close the juvenile white sharks get to waders, swimmers, surfers and stand-up paddle boarders.
The study found that surfers and stand-up paddle boarders came closest to the sharks.
Other major findings of the study showed that juvenile white sharks spend more than half of their time within 110 yards of the wave break and were even observed as close as two yards from the wave break.
According to Shark Lab research, great white nurseries have been shifting northward up the California coast since 2015 when El Niño ushered in warming waters in the Pacific Ocean. Researchers found a nursery as far north as Monterey.
Dr. Christopher Lowe, professor of marine biology and director of the CSULB Shark Lab, said that the findings of the study showed that, despite common perceptions, the chance of being bitten by a shark while in the ocean is much lower than people would expect.
“While there is high, year-round spatio-temporal human-JWS overlap, no aggressive behaviors were observed nor unprovoked bites at aggregation sites in southern California during the study period,” Rex said.
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Despite the study’s findings, Gauna said people planning to enjoy the ocean should always aim to peacefully coexist with sharks and abide by the animal’s house rules for the greatest chance of avoiding an attack.
The most recent shark attack in California was at Centerville Beach in Humboldt County in Northern California. A 31-year-old man was surfing in October of 2022, when he was knocked off his board and bitten by a shark in the leg, according to a report from CBS News.
The surfer kicked at the shark until it let him go and was able to swim to shore and call for help. The bite spanned nearly 19 inches on the man’s leg, and surgeons needed to staple the wound shut.
Very recently on May 26, State Parks officials in San Diego witnessed a shark feeding on a dolphin about 30 to 40 yards off the shore of Torrey Pines State Beach. No surfers or swimmers were in the water nearby, but the beach was crowded at the time. In response to the shark sighting, officers posted warning signs along the beach to ensure the safety of visitors.
Shark attacks in California are rare, and Gauna said that while people enjoy being in the ocean, it’s always best to be mindful and respect the shark’s home.
“To avoid any incidents, be educated. Know when to swim, know when you shouldn’t be swimming, know that there are certain conditions and factors that can lead to a higher probability of being in a negative situation with a shark.,” Gauna said.
In tandem with the release of the study’s findings, the CSULB Shark Lab will hold an event in Santa Barbara to answer questions and share information with the public. The event is on June 17 at 7 p.m. at the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum and will include raffles to auction off the chance to join researchers on a white shark tagging mission.
Tickets for the event are $20 and the proceeds will go toward continued research of great white sharks along the coast of California.
Lowe said that during the team’s time conducting the study, they never expected to see so many daily encounters with no incidents of any attacks. As part of the California Shark Beach Safety Program, the goal of the study was to determine if sharks pose a significant risk to beachgoers.
“It’s not just about sharks, it’s about people,” Lowe said. “This study may change people’s perception of the risk sharks pose to people that share the ocean with them.”
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