SYDNEY – A new study on great white sharks in the north eastern Pacific indicates the population is likely growing rather than endangered.
US researchers have contradicted earlier findings that great white sharks in the eastern north Pacific are at risk of extinction.
New findings suggests there are around 2000 in the area, not 219 as research released three years ago had indicated.
“If something is wrong with the largest, most powerful group in the sea, then something is wrong with the sea, so it’s a relief to find they’re in good shape,” said George Burgess, director of the Florida Museum of National History.
“That we found these sharks are doing OK, better than OK, is a real positive in light of the fact that other shark populations are not necessarily doing as well.”
The earlier count was based on research at two sites — the Farallon Islands west of San Francisco, and nearby Tomales Point — where seals congregate and so do the sharks that eat them.
