That telltale fin carving through the ocean’s surf is a sure sign of a great white shark, and marine researchers are happy to report that they’ve been seeing more of them.
Over the course of a years-long study, researchers monitored the waters off the Northern California coast, doing their best to lure great white sharks close to their boats.
“This was all for the purpose of getting a high-definition, quality photo of the dorsal fin,” said Paul Kanive, the lead author of the study.
He told KCBS Radio that those fins are a good way to identify individual sharks, to keep track of the overall population level.
What the researchers found was a modest increase in the shark numbers over the past 10 years. That’s a positive sign for the species and the region’s ocean life, as a whole, they say.
Legal protections are credited for restoring shark numbers along the coastline, but they’re not foolproof, Kanive warned.
“While they’re in this open ocean, about half of the time there’s kind of no protection, no regulations and no enforcement out there,” he said.
Kanive reminded anyone feeling squeamish that with or without the population bump, shark attacks are still exceedingly rare.
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