November 12, 2021
Hi Shark people!
Just wanted to give an update on the progress we've had through the season thus far. Tomales started out as a fairly 'normal' season with a handful of individual sharks seen each day of sampling effort. From early September to late October, there is usually an uptick in the number of individuals seen per day up until Halloween or so. We had a normal start but didn't see the uptick in individuals this season. Mr. Burns (see previous update) is still around with just a couple of other sharks filtering through. We can't say what could be driving these observations yet, but these observations within our data set are important in the long-term population studies for these sharks.
While Tomales has been a little slow, the Farallon Islands have been very productive. Over just 5 trips, we've identified over 20 individuals! We've also had tremendous water visibility that makes for great underwater (and above water) video. For this update, I have attempted to provide a link to a video of a 14 foot female we saw just the other day. Please check it out!
The Farallon Islands provide a bounty of prey for the sharks that reside there for the season. Elephant seals, sea lions, and harbor seals are rich in fats that the white sharks can store in the liver, their largest organ that can compose up to one third of their body weight! While coastal, the white sharks are fattening up and storing energy reserves in the liver to prepare for the seasonal migration ~ 2000 kilometers (~ 1250 miles) out to the 'White Shark Cafe'. The 'White Shark Cafe' is located about halfway between Baja and Hawaii, that happens in winter and early spring. As we get late in the season, we hope to see all the sharks nice and fat with enough energy stores to thrive on their migration. The photo in this update is of a rather rotund (love that word) 18 foot female. It appears she is well on her way to getting her liver packed with fat for whatever adventure follows the Farallon Islands!
Many thanks to each of you that have provided the means for our dedicated team to get out to our sampling locations to continue to learn about this iconic species!
Paul
