Great white shark migration

Friday, 06 November 2009 00:00

Photo: Simon Rogerson

They also discovered the sharks congregate in an area of ocean half way between the Baja Peninsular and the Hawaiian islands to mate and to feed – they’ve dubbed it the ‘great white café’.

Satellite and acoustic tags was used to track 179 great white sharks as part of a ten-year study. It was found that the sharks arrive at the California coast around August each year and stay until December, when they swim to Hawaii for the spring and early summer.

Researchers found the sharks stay close to the shore and the colonies of seals and sea lions there that are their main source of food. The sharks were even tracked swimming under the Golden Gate Bridge and into San Francisco Bay.


Marine biologist Scot Anderson, who co-authored the study, said: ‘The thing we’ve learnt about white sharks is that they’re not swimming around aimlessly – they are very selective predators.’