Tags Reveal White Sharks Have Neighborhoods in the North Pacific

A tracking study of white sharks in the northeastern Pacific Ocean shows they adhere to a rigid route of migration across the sea, returning to precisely the same spot along the California coast each time they come back. Over time, this behavior has made the population in the northeastern Pacific genetically distinct from other white shark populations.

"White sharks are a large, highly mobile species," said Salvador Jorgensen, a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station. "They can go just about anywhere they want in the ocean, so it's really surprising that their migratory behaviors lead to the formation of isolated populations."

The fact that the northeastern Pacific white sharks undergo such a consistent, large-scale migration, and that they are all closely related and distinct from other known white shark populations, suggests that it is possible to conduct long-term population assessment and monitoring of these animals.

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Image credit: Terry Goss