There has been a significant increase of white shark juveniles along the coast of Southern California and according to scientists, climate change is the root cause of these shark nurseries.
White shark nurseries have been discovered near beach goers in L.A. and have expanded as far as Monterrey Bay California. Experts say they have never seen such an influx up until 2015. There is now an increased chance that a beach goer may encounter some juvenile white sharks even as close as just wading in the water. Paul Laurel, a local surfer and body boarder mentioned, “I was just cooling my feet in Zuma when I saw a juvenile white shark about four feet in front of me. The shark was close to 3 feet long and in all the years I’ve been body boarding Zuma, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
The body mass of a baby great white usually doesn’t maintain enough heat to sustain their viability. Coastlines provide the perfect atmosphere since it is shallower and warmer, but climate change is increasing the temperature of the ocean. As a result, the northern cooler beaches of California are seeing more great white nurseries. “Some of the data right now might indicate that white sharks are a beneficiary of our current climate change.”- Professor Chris Lowe of Cal State University Long Beach. Chief Scientist, Dr. Kyle Van Houtan of Monterrey, suggest that these baby sharks are nature’s way of telling us that the status quo is being disrupted.
For swimmers and surfers in Southern California, juvenile white sharks are common to have as companions. According to some locals, “They are just little puppies but instead of little puppy feet that paw at you, they have little teeth that nibble at you.” Most of these baby sharks aren’t big enough to kill a full-grown human. They usually avoid human interaction and will scurry towards the deeper end if there was a chance encounter. However, these baby sharks are telling us the severity of the carbon footprint and how it affects the most important resource on our planet, the ocean.