June 26, 2014 — About 2,400 great white sharks troll the waters off the California coast, a new report estimates – a number that may give pause to surfers but may also ease concerns that the super predator is in danger.
A 10-person team of researchers pursued the count, published last week in the journal PLOS ONE, in the wake of earlier claims suggesting that the population of great whites in the northeastern Pacific Ocean was perilously low.
A 2011 study by researchers at Stanford University and UC Davis, published in the journal Biology Letters, estimated that fewer than 500 adults live along the continent's western edge, igniting a debate over whether the genetically distinct Pacific white shark should be listed as endangered.
The new report finds that the great white population is not only "stable" but may be growing. Its conclusions, which were shared with regulators prior to publication, support recent decisions by the state and federal governments not to grant the animal endangered species protection.