A approximately 10-mile stretch of seaside waters off San Diego continues to be used as a nursery by juvenile fantastic white sharks, which often appear in waves.
The junior pinnacle predators, measuring to about 9 feet, can be found from bluff-top routes at Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve.
I caught the accompanying images throughout gosto as justrecently as Dec. 20, normally inthepast twelvenoon (with the sun at my back) while using polarized sunglasses for mucheasier identifying.
Some of the sharks I observed swam close to coast as they browsed (presumably) for rays and other fish. Some were beyond the browse, travelling parallel to the coast in either instructions.
The stretch inbetween Del Mar and La Jolla is a significant aggregation website for young white sharks – a efficient feeding zone in a fairly safe and peaceful environment.
Many of the sharks are tagged. Chris Lowe, director of the of the Shark Lab at Cal State University Long Beach, informed me justrecently that there might be as numerous as 40 sharks makinguseof the location.
Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve does not regularly advertise the existence of sharks. But routine visitors understand about them, and kids on field journeys are often asked by biologists to shot to area them.
The sharks can be found from tracks and neglects nearby the water. Mornings are finest duetothefactthat the ocean is normally calm and the sun is at a appropriate angle. Binoculars and polarized glasses are very practical.
My finest sightings tookplace at medium or high tide, when sharks appear more mostlikely to method the coast. But on Wednesday throughout a medium low tide I found one shark well within the breaking waves (photo published above).
Will the sharks stay for the winterseason?
Lowe informed me in October 2022 that bigger sharks were mostlikely to hold over, while smallersized sharks may leave if the water temperaturelevel dipped into the 50s.
For now, the aggregation appears to be holding constant however noone understands how long it’ll last. Major aggregation websites are short-term and haveactually formed and dissipated at other areas.
What’s distinct about Torrey Pines is a path network that paysfor a bird’s-eye view. All you requirement are appropriate watching conditions and persistence.
If you’re lucky sufficient to be checkingout on a calm earlymorning with any kind of swell, you may area a shark or 2 swimming in waves.