Newport Beach issued a temporary closure<\/a> after a great white was spotted near a surfer.<\/p>\n Keep up with LAist.<\/p>\n
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Lowe said an ongoing marine heatwave is the reason we are seeing more sharks at this time of year.<\/p>\n
Climate change and shark behavior<\/p>\n
As climate change heats the Pacific, shark nurseries are moving farther north. <\/p>\n
\u201cPrior to 2015, we never saw baby white sharks north of Santa Barbara, and now there’s a white shark nursery in Monterey off Santa Cruz,\u201d said Lowe. \u201cThat’s persisted mainly because Monterey Bay has been getting progressively warmer over the last 30 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Southern California, there may also be a kind of “Goldilocks” phenomenon happening for white sharks.<\/p>\n
According to Lowe, they may be benefiting from this phase of climate change. \u201cTheir population may even be growing faster because of this,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the real question is, will that be the case 20 years from now?\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775171502_347_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Shark Lab director Chris Lowe searches for great whites sharks off the Huntington Beach Pier in March 2025.<\/p>\n
(<\/p>\n
Jason Armond<\/p>\n
\/<\/p>\n
Los Angeles Times via Getty Images<\/p>\n
)<\/p>\n
Shark safety <\/p>\n
Statistically, you are much less likely to suffer a shark bite if you\u2019re in a group of swimmers or surfers, Lowe said.<\/p>\n
Beaches with lifeguards are safer too, he said. Lifeguards can receive real time information about shark sightings and provide aid if something happens.<\/p>\n
One theory for why rare shark bites happen is that a shark confuses a person for a seal, or a hand or foot for a smaller animal, such as a sting ray.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why you should be extra mindful at dawn and dusk.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose are times when we think sharks are more active,\u201d Lowe said. \u201cThey may be looking for prey and the light levels are getting low. So those are times, especially when the water’s murky, that you may want to just simply be more careful, see if you can find a clear spot to swim or surf.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you see a shark, track it with your eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet the shark know you see it,\u201d Lowe said. \u201cIf you’re on your surfboard and you see a shark fin go by, turn your board towards the fin.\u201d<\/p>\n
And if you lose track of the shark, look behind you. \u201cThat’s what a smart predator would do to try to stay safe to check something out,\u201d Lowe said.<\/p>\n
If a shark is too close or you are the victim of a shark attack, Lowe said, give the shark a \u201cgood bop in the nose.\u201d The eyes and gills are also very sensitive for sharks. So in a worst case scenario, Lowe told LAist, \u201cthose are areas that if you hit them, you strike them, they will either move away or release.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lowe added it’s very rare for sharks to stick around after a bite. Even if there\u2019s blood in the water, quite often the sharks just disappear. \u201c\u200aThose are the things that lead us to think a shark might have made a mistake,\u201d Lowe said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shark sightings are up this year \u2014 why, and what to do if you see one LAist host…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[111132,111095,131,133,132,111133,56983,111134,111135,111136],"class_list":{"0":"post-249170","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-long-beach","8":"tag-beach-safety","9":"tag-great-white-sharks","10":"tag-long-beach","11":"tag-long-beach-headlines","12":"tag-long-beach-news","13":"tag-shark-safety","14":"tag-shark-sighting","15":"tag-surfing-safety","16":"tag-swimming-safety","17":"tag-what-to-do-if-i-see-a-great-white"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}