""Every year about this time, females are coming back from their open ocean migrations to give birth somewhere in Southern California, and then those baby white sharks show up at our beaches. What made this year unusual is that we started seeing newborns in February, which is really early. Normally, it starts in April and peaks in July.""
""We think it's going to be a sharky summer. In 2015, we observed a similarly early pupping season followed by an uptick in juvenile white sharks - which range up to about 6 years old and 10 feet long - gliding up to their so-called nurseries in Southern California from winter habitat in Baja.""
""The water got really warm, and some of our tagging studies have shown white sharks don't like water temperatures above 78 degrees. ... It pushed all those young sharks out of Baja into Southern California.""
Southern California is witnessing an early arrival of white sharks this spring, attributed to an extreme marine heat wave. A 10-foot aggressive shark prompted a partial ocean closure and delayed a surf competition. Experts note that baby white sharks typically arrive in April, but this year they appeared in February. With an expected El Niño increasing ocean temperatures, the likelihood of more sharks this summer is high. Historical data from 2015 shows a similar pattern of early pupping and increased juvenile shark sightings.
Read at SFGATE
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