A great white shark. Liz Hellmers / California Department of Fish and Wildlife
Southern California has seen a spike in great white shark sightings amid a spate of unseasonably warm spring weather. Experts expect to see more unusual heat, and more sharks, in the months ahead.
Weather forecasters expect a warming El Niño to shape over the summer, and according to some experts, it may be one of the strongest ever recorded.
“The last time we had a strong El Niño was in 2015 and 2016, and we had a lot of juvenile white sharks hanging around early,” Chris Lowe, head of the Shark Lab at Cal State University, Long Beach, told the Los Angeles Times. “So I’m expecting this year to be a sharky summer.”
Over the last two decades, sightings of juvenile great whites in Southern California have been trending up. Experts attribute the uptick both to warming waters and to expanded protections for the sharks.
California banned the fishing of great whites in 1994, and in 2023, it additionally banned the use of shark bait, shark lures, and shark chum. Experts say the growth in shark sightings is a positive sign, evidence that waters are clean, prey are abundant, and protections for great whites are working.
For beachgoers, they say, great whites pose little threat. “It’s very, very rare that people come into contact with them,” James Anderson, also of the Shark Lab, told the Los Angeles Times. “I always tell people that if you’re going to go to the beach, your biggest risk is probably the 405 [Freeway].”
