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Heal the Bay Blog

Category: California Sharks

Much of the public holds on to the Jaws-era blood and gore image of sharks as man-killing monsters. And unfortunately, scientists don’t really know that much about these awe-inspiring and truly fascinating creatures.

Places like Cal State Long Beach’s Shark Lab conduct cutting-edge research on sharks, and also play a large role in educating people about the true nature of sharks (did you know you are about 60 times more likely to die from a lightning strike than a shark attack?).

The Director of CSULB’s Shark Lab, Dr. Chris Lowe, was recently featured on Animal Planet’s new series “I, Predator”. You can see him talking about the challenges young white sharks face in learning to catch large, nimble prey like the Cape Fur Seal in a video clip from the show.



Everyone gets so freaked out about sharks, but the truth is that sharks have way more to fear from us than we do from them. Most sharks are small, and eat tiny crustaceans and stuff like that. Especially around SoCal.  We have lots of sharks here, but not many of them could do much damage even if they wanted to (which they don’t).  Case in point:  at Mother’s Beach right now there are TONS of leopard sharks and rays.  All small, not going to hurt you, but an incredible sight. Don’t miss it.
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/29/local/la-me-leopard-sharks-20100830