LONG BEACH, Calif. (KABC) — They are the predators of the deep off our Southern California shore.
For the last 10 years, the world-renowned Shark Lab at Cal State Long Beach has been tagging and tracking white sharks – 300 of them so far.
But their groundbreaking work is in jeopardy. The lab is just weeks away from shutting down due to cuts in state funding.
“If I don’t have more funding by January, I will have to lay off the rest of my staff and I’ll have to pull the equipment out because I won’t have anybody to support it,” said lab director Chris Lowe.
Lowe, who has run the lab since 1998, is desperate for help.
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He says the research impacts everyone who enjoys the ocean.
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The number of great white sharks along the Southern California shore is soaring. ABC7’s Leanne Suter set out with a team of researchers to find out what’s bringing them here, and what it means for those taking to the water.
The looming closure means the lab’s early warning system that alerts lifeguards when juvenile white sharks are close to certain beaches will soon go silent.
“This funding is really critical to enable us to keep doing what we’re doing – to advise the public, help keep people and sharks safe,” Lowe says.
The plea for help is coming as the shark lab releases a new first-of-its kind study showing key habitat shifts as sharks grow.
“We now know when they start to act like teenagers,” Lowe says. “Around age 6 is when they leave the nurseries and they start venturing offshore, going to offshore islands going to Monterey, even going to Hawaii.”
The number of white sharks off California’s shore has been increasing significantly over the years thanks to conservation and plenty of stingrays – their favorite food. After a decade of research the Shark Lab team is building a detailed understanding of the sharks’ behavior, which is vital to their safety and ours.
“We share the beach with these animals. Their nurseries are our playground. Because we’re sharing those areas it’s those larger juveniles, the ones that are around nine feet long are the ones we have to be most careful around because they are trying to catch marine mammals.”
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