A Great White Adolescent: juvenile white shark makes rare appearance for whale watchers

Here's a bit of fun news, perfectly timed as Discovery Channel's Shark Week prepares to launch this coming July 31st. In his blog, Outdoors, action and adventure, Pete Thomas reports on a Southern California whale excursion boat that was able to provide a little extra for its passengers - in the form of a great white shark.

After watching several blue whales, which will frequent the local California waters as part of their annual migratory trek, the passengers and crew of the Dana Pride were briefly visited by a juvenile white shark, perhaps measuring around 10 feet. There are some shark researchers who say female white sharks will give birth along the coast and as they move on as part of their normal migrations, the juveniles will remain in the area, feeding on fish and growing until the migratory lightbulb goes off in their heads and, as they reach adulthood, their feeding habits switch to seals and sea lions as the preferred prey.

However, they don't spend much time near the surface, so sightings are fairly rare. But they're there all the same. As evidence, many of the white sharks that the Monterey Bay Aquarium has had on display over the years, as part of their successful captive white shark program, have been juveniles caught by fishermen in their nets in, you guessed it, Southern California.

The captain, Todd Mansur, was able to take a short video on his cellphone of the approaching shark. Although one reader of Pete's article commented that it was a mako shark, it appears to me to be a juvenile white shark, not only because of its size and proportions but because of its relaxed movement in the water.



Having been to Isla Guadalupe, Baja to film the white sharks that migrate there in the fall months (I'll be there again this October), I have seen many familiar toothy faces return to the island year after year. But, unfortunately, there are a few sharks who have not been seen in some time, so I always enjoy hearing or seeing evidence of potential future generations of these important predators whose numbers have greatly diminished over the past few decades.

Read Pete Thomas' account of the visiting white shark.

Great White Shark: San Diego sighting adds one more juvenile to population

This past Thursday, in San Diego, California, a 5-foot juvenile great white shark was reported by two scuba divers at around 500 yards off shore of La Jolla Cove in about 30 feet of water. Lifeguards briefly closed the beach while they cruised the area but soon reopened the beach, issuing a precaution to swimmers and leaving it at that. The local press reported the sighting without any overwrought hysteria and moved on to their next sound bite.

Chock up one for common sense.

Frankly, it does my heart good to hear of these sightings. With each juvenile seen, we know there is one more shark to add to the white shark's precarious population; one more shark that can, in 10 years, reproduce and, as Matt Hooper said, "make little sharks." Juvenile white sharks do not pose a substantial threat to humans as they are fixated on fish as menu items. It won't be until they reach maturity that they graduate to pennipeds (seals and sea lions) and the possibility of a surfer or swimmer being mistaken for a seal could occur, and has occurred.

But why off of warm Southern California? Juveniles have been sighted from Malibu to San Diego. There are deep canyons that run along the coastline in which juvenile white sharks can comfortably cruise, feeding on fish, while adults have generally taken up their migration patterns that often bring them to areas of seal or sea lion concentrations, like the Farallon Islands off San Francisco and Isla Guadalupe far off the Baja coast.

A recent report from the Shark Research Committee, a California non-profit headed by well-known shark behaviorist Ralph Collier, cited 7 unprovoked shark attacks along the Pacific Coast in 2010; 5 in California waters and 2 off the Oregon coast. Only one attack produced a fatality. Of interest were the activities the people were involved in at the time of the incidents: 3 surfing, 2 kayaking, 1 paddle-boarding, and 1 boogie-boarding. All surface activities, all included an elongated shape with limbs or paddles in the water. When you add in the right conditions of low visibility or other possible attractants like heavy splashing or nearby pinnipeds, all lend themselves to the classic scenario of mistaken identity as the white shark executes its typical single-bite ambush technique which it uses on an unsuspecting seal or sea lion (although not definitively confirmed, the white shark was suspected in all seven incidents). The attacks also took place in the late summer/early fall. This is when many adult great whites are on the move, returning from their mid-Pacific migration, back to their coastal hangouts.

Given the image that is generally served up by the media, I don't expect the general public to rejoice with every sighting of a great white shark along the California coast. But it's good to know that the circle of life is still taking place for these threatened ocean predators who play such an important role in balancing the marine ecosystem. Hopefully, the juvenile white shark seen off La Jolla Cove will not encounter poachers and live to carry on the species.

Read about the white shark sighting in San Diego.
Read about the Shark Research Committee report.