Name: Great whites and humans now closer than ever
Uploaded: 2025-12-28T01:42:37.043Z
Duration: 2 min 44 s
Description: On the sunny beaches of Southern California, surfers and swimmers often share the waves, with sharks. Researchers reveal that encounters with great white sharks are more common than you might think.

On the sunny beaches of Southern California, surfers and swimmers often share the waves, with sharks. Researchers reveal that encounters with great white sharks are more common than you might think.

Malibu

The population of great white sharks off the Southern California coast has increased in recent years, resulting in more frequent encounters with humans. Despite the rise in sightings, incidents of shark attacks remain rare, with only about three bites per year and one fatality every three to four years along the California coast.

Experts attribute the growing shark numbers to conservation measures and warming ocean temperatures. Public perception of great whites is shifting as footage shows most encounters end peacefully, prompting authorities to issue warnings rather than close beaches after sightings.

Great whites and humans now 'closer than ever'

Looming beneath the warming waters of the Southern California coast is a growing population of great white sharks, and more and more often, they're encountering humans. Photographer Carlos Gauna made waves last year when he posted a video of this 15-footer trolling the shore near the busy Santa Monica Pier. But that's now become an everyday occurrence. Carlos, who posts his videos on YouTube as The Malibu Artist, sends up a drone camera on a beach south of Malibu, and in less than five minutes... Holy cow. Never fails. He spots a 12 to 13-foot great white off the coast. 99.9% of the time, people will not know that they've been near a shark. However, you have to understand that they are an apex predator, and they can inflict pain on you or even lead to a death, right? So we just got to understand that when you're in the water, you're in their realm, and we have to play by their rules. Since 2018, he's recorded frequent encounters between a growing population of great whites and human, from swimmers to this motorboat paced by a massive 20-footer. A shark biologist on a kayak spots an adult white shark trailing her. Carlos trails one back. Right behind me. Holy cow. Carlos has spent years filming close encounters between humans and sharks, and what that film shows is how rarely those encounters result in an attack. Shark attacks have actually decreased in recent years. There are about three bites a year and one fatality every three to four years off the California coast. Chris Lode says the sharks are getting used to us, and they know that we are not the prey they're looking for. It is providing the public a different view of what white sharks are like, and it doesn't match what they saw from Jaws or what they see on Shark Week. It's giving them this idea that the sharks are out there all the time. The Shark Lab has been tracking and tagging sharks since 1966. Did you get it? Yep. Lowe says warming waters and conservation measures have led to rising numbers along the coast in the past two decades. If you spent any appreciable time in the water off California, I guarantee a white shark swam by you and you did not know it. These boogie boarders obliviously paddle toward a great white that simply turns and swims away. These days, California authorities no longer close beaches after a sighting. Now they simply warn beachgoers with signs, reminding them they're sharing the ocean with a mammoth predator who, more likely than not, will leave them alone. John Hendren, Al Jazeera, Los Angeles.

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