Surf's up, sharks down: Study finds low shark bite risk despite overlapping human-shark activity in Southern California Sharks Safety HumanSharkOverlap CoastalResearch California SurfingSafety MarineLife CoastalActivities SharkBehavior PLOSONE
Study: Patterns of overlapping habitat use of juvenile white shark and human recreational water users along southern California beaches. Image Credit: Mark F Lotterhand / Shutterstock
In the current study, scientists have determined the rates of shark-human interaction across the entire southern California coastline. They have specifically focused on Juvenile white sharks of the Northeastern Pacific population. Accurate GPS locations of sharks were obtained from drone recording and used to observe sharks’ behavior and potential shark-human interactions. Humans observed during the survey were categorized into five groups: waders, swimmers, bodyboarders, surfers, and stand-up paddlers.
Important observations The surveys identified waders and surfers as the most abundant water users, followed by swimmers, bodyboarders, and stand-up paddlers. A total of 1,204 juvenile white sharks were observed during the entire survey period. The daily shark-human interaction was 97% on beaches with shark aggregations, and human activity showed high spatial overlap at shark aggregation sites. A higher seasonal human-shark spatio-temporal overlap was observed at aggregation sites in southern California.
Spatio-temporal overlap between sharks and humans The surveys identified Carpinteria as the largest aggregation site within southern California. At this beach, shark observations reduced during winter and peaked during summer. In contrast, human observations remained low until summer and peaked during summer. Despite differences in overall beach-wide distribution, significant overlaps between the primary area of use for both sharks and humans were observed during the study period.
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