Imagine being in the water and not knowing if a shark is nearby. Researchers from Cal State Long Beach have been trying to figure out how sharks find people in the water. They have been tagging young white sharks and playing them recordings of people in the water. The sharks can hear these sounds from about 100 feet away, but they mostly ignore them. This is because sharks can tell that people are not food.
The researchers think that sharks have learned to tune out the sounds of people in the water. If you watch TV shows like Shark Week, you might think that sharks are always looking to attack people. But that's not true. We are just like big objects floating in the water to them. Sharks see people in the water every day and have learned to not pay attention to them. The coast is a place where sharks and people meet, and it's getting more crowded.
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. Researchers are studying the recordings of sharks to learn more about them.
