In a finding that should excite oceanographers while stoking caution among some ocean swimmers, NOAA biologists say great white sharks are recovering along the Atlantic coast.
While the great whites — called simply “white sharks” by biologists — are not listed as endangered or threatened in U.S. waters, a new NOAA Fisheries survey of Atlantic sharks suggests the diminished apex predator could be seeing healthy reproduction rates.
“Notably, we caught four juvenile white sharks on this year’s survey, the most ever caught in a single year in our time series” from 1996 to 2024, said NOAA fish biologist Michelle Passerotti in a NOAA blog post, who led the shark survey and tagging project in April and May.
“To truly determine differences in abundance year-over-year, raw catch numbers need more context,” Passerotti, who works in the agency’s Apex Predators Program, wrote in a blog post published Wednesday. “However, increasing encounters with white sharks are a good sign that the population is beginning to recover.”
