Great whites left San Diego nursery
- Researchers tracking juvenile great white sharks say the Del Mar-to-Torrey Pines nursery went quiet in 2025 and shows no tagged sharks so far this year. - Scientists previously counted 20 to 40 juvenile white sharks at once off San Diego, but 2026’s marine heat wave is pushing many north earlier. - NOAA says El Niño is likely to emerge by summer, a shift scientists say could alter shark traffic. (cpc.ncep.noaa.gov)
A juvenile shark nursery is a stretch of shallow, warm water where young sharks can feed and avoid bigger predators. The Del Mar-to-Torrey Pines coast had been one of Southern California’s busiest great white nursery sites, but researchers say it went quiet in 2025 and has stayed quiet so far in 2026. (csulb.edu) (thedailynewsonline.com) Chris Lowe of the California State University, Long Beach Shark Lab said tracking data shows no juvenile great whites in that San Diego nursery this year. Jack Elstner of Scripps Institution of Oceanography said researchers had recently seen aggregations of 20 to 40 juveniles there at a time. (cbs8.com) (thedailynewsonline.com) The likely reason is temperature. Lowe said a 2026 marine heat wave and unusually warm water off Baja California have pushed newborn sharks north earlier than usual, with pupping reported as early as February instead of the more typical spring buildup. (cbs8.com) (sfgate.com) That does not mean Southern California is shark-free. Lowe said Orange County and Los Angeles County could see more juvenile white shark activity as the animals follow warm water and prey. (cbs8.com) (kogo.iheart.com) For San Diego swimmers and surfers, the short-term implication is fewer juvenile great white sightings near the old nursery. Researchers also say juvenile white sharks mostly feed on stingrays and bottom fish, not people. (thedailynewsonline.com) (cbs8.com) The nursery mattered because juvenile white sharks use nearshore habitat differently from older sharks. A 2024 study highlighted by KPBS found they begin leaving nursery waters at about 9 to 10 feet long, or roughly 4 to 5 years old, when they start shifting toward deeper habitat and larger prey. (kpbs.org) Researchers are not treating the San Diego lull as permanent. Elstner said nursery hot spots are dynamic, and Lowe said this year’s conditions resemble 2015, when El Niño helped bring unusually high numbers of juvenile white sharks to Southern California beaches. (cbs8.com) The climate backdrop is shifting again. The National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center said on April 9 that El Niño is likely to emerge in May-to-July 2026 with a 61% chance, and noted a 1-in-4 chance of a very strong event by late 2026. (cpc.ncep.noaa.gov) That forecast is why scientists are still watching San Diego closely. Warmer water later this year could redraw where juvenile great whites gather — and could also bring other warm-water sharks north — even after the old nursery fell quiet. (thedailynewsonline.com) (kogo.iheart.com)
