Tags Reveal White Sharks Have Neighborhoods in the North Pacific

Census researchers have recently published a paper in Scientists with the Tagging of Pacific Predators (TOPP) program combined satellite tagging, passive acoustic monitoring and genetic tags to study white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) – popularly known as great white sharks – in the North Pacific. The team consisted of researchers from Stanford University, University of California-Davis, Point Reyes Bird Observatory and the Pelagic Shark Research Foundation, and the details of their study were published online by the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The researchers used a combination of satellite and acoustic tags to follow the migrations of 179 individual white sharks between 2000 and 2008. These sharks were adults or sub-adults that ranged in size up to 4,000 pounds, and were individually tagged at sites along the central California coast, including the Gulf of the Farallones, Tomales Bay and Año Nuevo. The electronic tags reveal that the sharks spend the majority of their time in three areas of the Pacific: the North American shelf waters of California; the slope and offshore waters around Hawaii; and an area called the "White Shark Café," located in the open ocean approximately halfway between the Baja Peninsula and the Hawaiian Islands. The full press release, including video of scientists tagging white sharks, can be viewed on Stanford University's website.