50 leopard sharks turned California cove into a maternity ward, viral video shows
Beach-goers enjoying the Fourth of July holiday at a San Luis Obispo County cove probably didn’t think they’d be having a good time on the sand while a bunch of sharks had a party of their own in the water right nearby.
But that’s just what a now-viral video taken at Pirate’s Cove by park ranger specialist shows: more than 50 leopard sharks cruising in circles in shallow waters, while many of the people remained oblivious to their presence.
The sight, Tim Faes said, was unlike anything he’d ever witnessed before there in his 15 years working for SLO County Parks, which is why he decided to take a video to share with his family and friends on Facebook.
“At best, you may see like a small fish or something like that, or even a school of fish,” Faes said. “But never a single shark in 15 years, and never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d see a group of sharks together like that.”
The sharks’ presence in Pirate’s Cove didn’t worry Faes, though.
He said that as soon as he saw them, he recognized the collection as leopards based on their behavior, so he knew that nobody at the beach was actually in danger.
“If it was something that I thought was dangerous, we would have probably tried to restrict access down to the beach, or maybe call the Harbor Patrol and, you know, alert authorities,” Faes said. “But for the most part, I just thought it was a really cool thing. For me, it was a really unique interpretive opportunity where as people were coming down to the beach, I could say, ‘Hey, you see that group of sharks down there and then be like, it looks like they’re leopard sharks.’”
So what were the sharks doing in such large numbers so close to shore?
Warmer waters and conservation efforts bring more sharks to the Central Coast
Chris Lowe, director of the shark lab director at California State University Long Beach, said that, as the California coast has seen an increase in marine heat waves due to climate change, certain spots in the ocean now have warmer waters than before.
And those waters are perfect for pregnant leopard sharks, as they allow them to gestate more quickly.
“Leopard sharks are using shallow embankments as nursery habitats, or what we call maternity wards,” Lowe said. “That’s where pregnant females go and hang out in the water during the day to basically gestate faster.”
The combination of those warming waters and shark conservation efforts have made places like the Central Coast particularly suitable habitat to sharks, and not only small, harmless ones.
Recent data, which includes drone sightings and sea otter bites, show that more white sharks are being attracted to the area, a fact brought into tragic relief in December when a boogie-boarder was killed in an attack off Morro Bay.
Just last month, a swimmer was bitten by a shark near Pacific Grove and suffered severe injures before he was rescued by good Samaritans.
So the sharks are around, and SLO County’s coast is now especially popular with juvenile white shark populations, Lowe said.
“Once they’re a couple years old, they can tolerate water temperatures that occur off SLO,” Lowe said. “They are probably starting to use those waters as a kind of teenage playground if you will. That’s the little school for white sharks.”
This means that people who venture into the waters off SLO County beaches are actually swimming or surfing alongside more of these young predators, who are learning how to hunt for baby seals and sometimes accidentally taking bites out of sea otters.
But, despite isolated attacks, it doesn’t mean that more people are going to be bitten.
It might actually mean the opposite, Lowe said.
In Southern California, where he centers most of his research, bite rates aren’t going up — they’re actually going down per capita.
“We think that some of these sharks might actually be learning more by being amongst people and can recognize people,” Lowe said. “Not individuals, mind you, but they know that that’s a human and not a seal. So what if people sharing these beaches with these sharks are actually training those sharks that that is a human and how to not mistake that for a seal?”
Are the leopard sharks still visible in Pirate’s Cove?
Because of overcast days and changes in water temperature, sharks aren’t always visible in the waters off the Central Coast.
But that didn’t stop some people from trekking down to Pirate’s Cove on Thursday to see if the leopard sharks were still around.
They had moved on by that point, and all that could be found was a lone stingray swimming across the shore.
Even if the large group of leopard sharks is gone, the video taken by Faes has continued to gain popularity. It has been republished on social media platforms such as TikTok, where it has earned more than 50,000 likes.
Faes said that he only wanted to show his friends what a day in his job looked like. He did not expect the video to “take a life of its own.”
“It’s kind of fun in some ways, but it’s also a little overwhelming. Like, again, I’ve never had anything like that happen to me before. But I’m trying my best to reach out to people when they ask questions and trying to be as informed as I can.”
