Beachgoers across California will share the ocean waves with an influx of young great white sharks this summer, as reported by The Guardian.
Juvenile white sharks are already appearing along the coast after fleeing warmer waters in Mexico during a strong El Niño.
Although scientists predict the highest shark numbers in a decade, they emphasize that humans are not part of their natural diet.
"Humans don't look like prey, they don't sound like prey," Dr Chris Lowe, the director of the Shark Lab at California State University Long Beach, said.
"If it doesn't feel like prey [to a white shark], they ignore it. It's not a threat, it's not food."
Lowe has spent 20 years monitoring white sharks using drones and tracking data.
During the 2015 El Niño, his team recorded twice as many white sharks as usual, leading to a nursery near Monterey Bay.
Young white sharks measuring between 6ft and 9ft regularly migrate between Baja California and the California coast, staying close to the shore to feed on fish, rays, and squid.
Shark incidents remain exceedingly rare in California, with only 250 incidents and 17 fatalities recorded since 1950 by the state department of fish and wildlife.
Researchers at Lowe's lab analyzed shark behavior by playing audio of surfers, swimmers, and kayakers to the animals.
The sharks ignored surfers and kayakers but investigated swimmers due to splashing sounds, moving within 10ft before swimming away.
"Our conclusion is we think sharks can actually tell the difference between people, and because we don't smell like food, sound like food, look like food, they don't consider us food," Lowe said.
"We know that, because could you imagine the number of people that would be bitten or consumed in California?"
Understanding Shark Behavior
Shark encounter rates vary significantly by region due to differing shark species.
Florida, which saw 11 unprovoked bites in 2025 comprising 44% of the US total, is primarily populated by reef sharks like blacktips.
Meanwhile, recent shark bites in Australia have involved bull sharks and white sharks, with warmer ocean temperatures drawing bull sharks closer to populated areas like Sydney.
Gavin Naylor, the director of the Florida Program for Shark Research at the University of Florida, explained the species differences.
"A white shark is about as different from a blacktip shark as a kangaroo is from a dog," Naylor said.
"You cannot compare bites in California with bites in Florida. The bites in Florida are from completely different species."
Australia experiences more bites on average because the sharks near population centers are significantly larger than the juvenile sharks found near California beaches.
"I tell people all the time that if sharks really did target people we'd have about 10,000 bites in the US alone," Naylor says.
"Humans are like little plump sausages, they're very easy to eat. It'd be a smorgasbord."
"What that tells you, the sharks are actually doing their level best to avoid people."
The primary theory for unprovoked shark attacks remains mistaken identity, though data shows California white sharks adapt quickly even if an incident occurs.
"You've got these animals swimming around this environment all the time," Lowe said.
"Maybe the sharks that mistakenly bite people haven't been around people much, or maybe they don't make mistakes very often, period," he said.
"I just don't know how else to explain it."
Drone data showing sharks turning away from humans after getting close has altered safety perspectives over the last two decades.
"My advice was any shark that's bigger than a person could be a potential threat," Lowe said.
"Flash forward 20 years … I swim with these white sharks every day and I have no qualms doing it because of the data that we collected."
