Juvenile White Shark Research

In addition to studies at Guadalupe Island with adult sharks, PIER has also had the unique opportunity to tag a baby white shark. While some information on the behaviors of adults is available, data on smaller animals is almost non-existent. Based on occurrences of baby whites washing up on shore and incidental catches, it is thought that the California Bight (from Point Conception to the border of Mexico) is a nursery ground for white sharks. Where they go once they leave this area is unknown, consequently we know nothing about additional habitats outside the California Bight area. Nor is it clear what fisheries they may interact with.

In June 2000, a fisherman off of Long Beach, California caught a small white shark and brought it to the Southern California Marine Institute. There, the young shark spent 4 days, while her fate was considered. Fortunately for the little white shark, Tom Pfleger (co-Founder of PIER) offered not only to pay for her release, but also to provide scientists with a rare opportunity to study the movements of this young animal. Just prior to her release she was adorned with a pop-up satellite tag.

Although the tag was programmed to release in December, the tag was found wrapped in a fisherman's net only 27 days after it was released. The shark apparently escaped its encounter and left only the tag behind as evidence that it had been there. Although it would have been informative to see where the shark had traveled up through December, the recovery of the tag itself enabled PIER to download a very detailed dataset from the tag. A record of temperature, depth, and light levels for every two minutes that the tag was on the shark was obtained.

Vertical movement of the juvenile white shark throughout one day (June 28, 2000) of the study period

Preliminary analysis indicates that the animal clearly survived its captive experience. Depths occupied differed from day to night. At night the animals made shallow dives within the top 10 to 20 meters of the surface, while during the day, it spent most of its time near the surface with occasional dives as deep as 250 meters. This peer reviewed analysis of the tag data has been published in Environmental Biology of Fishes 70:133-143, 2004. View pdf: "Insights into young of the year white shark, Carcharodon carcharias"