Have you ever wondered how sharks find people in the water? Researchers from Cal State Long Beach have been studying this. They put special tags on young white sharks and played them recordings of people in the water. The sharks could hear these sounds from really far away - about 100 feet. But they mostly ignored the sounds.
The researchers think that sharks can tell that people are not food. We don't look, smell, or sound like food to them. So, they ignore us. Sharks see people in the water every day and have learned to not pay attention to them. If you watch TV shows about sharks, you might think they will attack you if they are nearby. But that's not true. We are just like big objects floating in the water to them.
Sightings of sharks are happening more often all along the coast. The authorities are using drones to help keep people safe. The drones fly over the water and look for sharks. They can spot sharks from really far away. In one place, 16 sharks were seen in just the first 5 days of July. The drones found 7 of them. The reason we are seeing more sharks is because the water is warmer and there are more bait fish and seals for them to eat.
