Shark season has kicked off and it’s already shaping up to be a busy one.
On a recent day, a great white shark was seen on camera swimming not far from Doheny State Beach in Dana Point and a few weeks earlier a shark was spotted leaping out of the water off T-Street in San Clemente, both popular surf spots. Video from a few days ago shows a shark swimming near two young bodyboarders in the Santa Monica Bay.
But don’t let the shark sightings scare you – the creatures don’t seem to care much about the people sharing their waters, experts say.
“Sharks basically ignore people,” Cal State Long Beach Shark Lab director Chris Lowe said.
But some education for the humans can go a long way.
So Shark Shacks will start popping up at local beaches beginning Tuesday, June 1, after a hiatus forced by the coronavirus pandemic. The first stop will be at at Belmont Pier, followed by Huntington Beach on June 3, with more than 40 other pop-ups planned through summer.
The Shark Shacks, which launched in 2019, will have props like jaws, sharp teeth and other interactive displays. Students working the booths will answer questions about great whites and other local sea creatures such as stingrays. It’s a chance to educate the public about ocean life found offshore in local waters.
Early indications are this is shaping up to be a busy shark season. Juvenile sharks, in some cases in groups of 20 to 40, have found warm-water spots near shore to hang out at, called “hot spots” by experts.
And some larger juvenile sharks, which typically leave the area when water temps dip, stuck around, according to tracking by the Shark Lab.
So far, the big shivers of sharks are being tracked mostly in Santa Barbara and San Diego and seem to not be showing up in big numbers off the South Bay, Long Beach and Orange County as they did five and six years ago.
“It’s weird, we can not figure out why,” Lowe said. “We’re hoping this year we might be able to get a handle on why these hot spots move.”
That doesn’t mean sharks are completely staying clear of the area or won’t show up in bigger numbers at previous hot spots.
“We get detections here and there, but it seems like they are just moving through to those other places,” Lowe said. “We suspect we may see new hot spots out there. With all those eyes out there, as people start to see them, they’ll let us know.”
Photographer Matt Larmand got his season’s first shark shot while flying a drone on May 25, on a day when wind and waves were mellow and visibility allowed for images below the ocean’s surface.
“I was stoked to finally spot one, I’d heard of a few sightings but the weather hasn’t been the best, so to finally have a sunny day with no wind, it was great,” he said. “It’s always cool seeing them, it means the water is finally warming up.”
Carlos Guana, who posts his videos on TheMalibuArtist , has been getting phenomenal footage of sharks co-existing with humans off the Santa Monica Bay’s coastline, swimming just next to surfers, paddleboarders and just a few days ago two small unsuspecting children on bodyboards.
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that they’ve always been there. They have always just been around us,” said Guana, who films from San Diego to Santa Barbara. “The footage just helps us see what may have always been occurring.”
It’s a fine balance between respecting where sharks live and understanding you can still be in danger if you’re not educated about them, he said.
Still, people need to remember they are an apex predator. In the case of the young bodyboarders, he said he went over to warn them about the shark, and there were also signs posted, but not long after they were back in the water.
Lowe talked about footage Guana has captured, mostly of the sharks that go unnoticed as they approach people in the water.
“It’s beautiful footage, we’re just scientists and our stuff is clinical,” Lowe said. “It shows the public there’s sharks and people together all the time. We just can’t see them.”
As more drones show what is actually happening between sharks and humans, it will help change people’s perception of sharks, he said.
“If you watch Shark Week, you see it. You have this impression that if you see a shark, it’s going to attack you,” he said. “We now have a decade worth of data to indicate that’s not true.”
Young sharks like to stick close to the coast because of the shallow, warmer water and their food source – stingrays and other small fish – can be found near the shoreline, experts believe.
Lowe said the Shark Lab is looking at potentially creating a new app that will allow the public to help track sharks by reporting sightings.
“We’re still looking into it, we call it a citizen science project,” he said, saying they hope to launch it sometime this summer.
“We will be verifying all the information,” he said. “Nothing will get posted until it’s verified.”
Another project in the works aims at studying people’s perception of sharks and other marine life. Shark Lab students are teaming with a psychologist, who specializes in the study of fear, to dive into the subject.
“We want to educate the public based on the science we have. To do that, we have to know people’s preconceptions,” Lowe said. “Are we changing hearts and minds about shark risks?”
The online survey called “Perceptions of Wildlife and Beach Safety,” takes an estimated 45 minutes and gauges people’s thoughts on sharks and other ocean life.
“We’re really excited about this. We suspect it’s going to vary widely,” Lowe said. “There are people, a lot of locals in Southern California, who use the ocean a lot. Their knowledge base is different from people who come once a year, from Kansas or on vacation.”
Ultimately, the goal is to educate people to not be so afraid of sharks, he said.
With the busy summer season approaching, the Shark Lab has posted some tips on social media for the public to know in case they encounter a shark.
One tip is, if you encounter a shark, keep your eyes on it. By keeping your eyes on the shark, and pointing your board at them, they will know you see them and are more likely to turn away and leave you alone.
“Pay attention to animal behavior. Bait balls and mammals jumping on your board are a sign predators may be around. Keep an eye out and safely swim back to shore.”