Woman finds over a dozen dead baby leopard sharks on La Jolla trail
"Not only are acts like that illegal, but it's really harming a very important, like, a biodiversity hotspot that we have right out here," Brent Fish, an aquarist with Birch Aquarium, stated.
In La Jolla each summer, pregnant leopard sharks gather in warm, shallow water-if you're patient enough to find them.
La Jolla Shores hosts the world's largest congregation of harmless leopard sharks from June through December, attracting hundreds of pregnant females to its warm, shallow waters for breeding.
Two male leopard sharks sequentially mated with a female while filmed, indicating a critical mating habitat with conservation and genetic-diversity implications.
Saving endangered leopard sharks in Indonesia's Raja Ampat archipelago
Leopard sharks were once abundant in the waters of Indonesia's Raja Ampat archipelago but have been nearly wiped out due to commercial fishing and the lucrative shark trade.