Here's something California beachgoers may not know: When great white sharks come within about 100 yards of some state beaches, lifeguards receive a text alert.
A program at Cal State Long Beach developed this unique system about six years ago, and has since tagged hundreds of small white sharks for monitoring.
But the program is at risk of closing after government funding runs out.
The Shark Lab at Cal State Long Beach initially received $3.75 million in state funding in 2018 to create the program, which tracks small white sharks along the California coast, with researchers hoping the monitoring will increase safety at beaches and help the broader public Understand the problem. Sea creatures are better.
Chris Lowe, a professor of marine biology and organisms, said the money helped researchers tag 300 juvenile sharks – with about 235 sharks still actively monitored – and send data about their whereabouts and habits to lifeguards on the stretch of beaches. From Morro Bay to the Mexican border. Shark Lab Director.
The team initially tracked the sharks using 120 underwater acoustic receivers about 100 yards from shore. Divers will collect data from the receivers about once a month and send it back to rescuers. By that point, the information was usually out of date.
Over the years, the program has added tracking buoys to the water “which provide lifeguards with real-time data,” Lowe said.
“Now, when a shark swims by one of these buoys… it sends a text alert to the rescuers,” Lowe said. “Then they can click on this text alert, and it takes them to a website, and then they can learn all about this shark. How big was it, where was it, what beaches did it visit, how long was it beached?”
Lowe added that this technology is not so much an “early warning system” as a scientific tool to help lifeguards “better manage beaches.”
Lowe said the funding was intended to last the research team for five years, but he was able to extend the funds for an additional year. The team of 15 people, including paid students, works on a budget of about $1 million a year.
Lowe said he has spoken with state lawmakers about allocating more money to continue the program over the next few years. But the state's bleak budget outlook has halted additional spending amid a projected deficit of at least $38 billion.
Long Beach Democratic state Sen. Lena Gonzalez's office said she is aware that universities at Cal State are dealing with funding challenges this year, and that Shark Lab's alert system “also appears to be facing a financial shortfall.”
Gonzalez's office did not say whether the senator would push for funding for the lab in the budget. Assemblyman Josh Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Without another $7 million infusion to continue the program, Lowe fears scientific progress may stall. For the program to continue, the lab will have to find private or institutional funding until the state budget recovers, he said.
The tracking has helped fuel drone research showing how often surfers and other beachgoers share the water with sharks, often without incident. This in turn has helped eliminate misconceptions that sharks are always inherently dangerous and that beaches should be closed when they are nearby.
Lowe said the data collection has helped save coastal communities millions of dollars each year because beaches often remain open even after lifeguards receive alerts about sharks in the water. Researchers are also beginning to understand why sharks flock to certain beaches, and what their food supply says about the marine ecosystem as a whole.
“This information is valuable not only to rescuers, but to the public,” Lowe said. “Because they are starting to better understand what sharks are doing out there and why they are not as big a threat as we once thought.”
At the same time, the research efforts have become a major attraction and recruiting point for prospective students looking to study marine biology at Cal State Long Beach.
Lowe said the new funding will help the team tag more sharks and upgrade some transmitters, while continuing to educate the public about marine conservation and shark habits.
“When shark incidents happen, and they will continue to happen — shark bites will still happen — people will have an understanding of the rarity of those circumstances,” he said. “If we can't run this type of program in California, I don't know where we can.”
