Exploring the seasonal dynamics of coastal movements in white sharks across the North-East Pacific

Gaining insights into seasonal aggregations of marine megafauna and how patterns vary among demographic groups is pivotal for modeling populations and ecosystem dynamics and evaluating anthropogenic risk exposure. In California, adult and sub-adult white sharks recurrently aggregate on the central coast in fall and winter months, while juveniles are thought to remain present in southern aggregations year-round. However, understanding of movements outside of known aggregation sites, transitions in patterns between ontogenetic groups, and drivers of presence at coastal sites is limited.

Using a long-term acoustic tagging program (established in 2006) in Central California, our project focuses on unraveling the coastal movement patterns of white sharks spanning juvenile to adult size ranges. Our expanded receiver array covers both historical aggregation sites and additional locations along the Central California coast, providing a finer-scale investigation into shark movements.