What's Killing the West Coast's Young Great White Sharks?
Sharks are one of the ocean's fiercest predators, but a new study shows how often they're taken down by fishing nets.
Two of the ocean's biggest predators—sharks and humans—are at odds with each other in southern California.
A new study in the Journal of Applied Ecology found that fishing was the greatest cause of death for juvenile great white sharks off the western coasts of Southern California and Mexico. From 2002 to 2016, researchers tagged 37 sharks with satellite tags that remotely sent information about each shark, such as its location and temperature. Of the sharks they observed during this time period, only two died “natural” deaths: one was preyed upon and the other's death was inconclusive.
Bycatch refers to the animals fishers catch incidentally while fishing for a different species. For example, if a fishing boat catches shark while fishing
