Great White Sharks “booming” in Monterey Bay
Great White Sharks are one of the most terrifying creatures in the ocean.
And it appears they’ve found a new home in California.
Beautiful Monterey Bay!
According to Phys.org, the Monterey Bay Aquarium has been monitoring migratory patterns of sharks, and were surprised to discover they’re thriving.
The data, collected over several years, shows that temperatures in the Bay have been warming dramatically.
Those warming temperatures have created a perfect playground for the premier apex predator of the ocean: Great White Sharks.
Phys.org quotes John O’Sullivan, Monterey Bay Aquarium’s director of collections:
“We started seeing the heat wave after 2014, and that warmer water temperature along the coast opened up a swim corridor over 400 miles from Santa Barbara all the way up to Monterey Bay.”
That warmer water may spell trouble for other wildlife, but the sharks appear to have adapted quite nicely.
In fact, the conditions in Monterey have become positively favorable.
“It was one of the aquarium’s first examples of how climate change affected the marine animal.”
But there’s no need to be scared.
The chances of a shark attack are slim.
While Great White sharks are considered the “most aggressive” by some marine biologists…
The Florida Museum notes that there have only been 137 total attacks from the past 5 years.
But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be careful.
Great White Shark attack in Monterey Bay
According to KRON4, a swimmer off the coast of Pacific Grove in Monterey Bay is recovering after a recent attack.
The man, Steve Bruemmer, was enjoying the afternoon sunshine, basking in the brisk breeze off the ocean.
While he didn’t normally swim on Wednesdays, he figured, with the weather being so nice, he’d take the opportunity for a dip.
When he was about 300 feet from shore, he suddenly began to scream.
KRON4 quotes Heath Braddock, a surf instructor at Lover’s Point Beach:
“A lot of tourists cry wolf and cry out ‘shark!’ It’s rarely the case. It’s usually a dolphin. But this guy continued to scream frantically. I saw the pool of blood around him so I knew it was real”
Within moments, Braddock and two standup paddleboarders were able to reach Bruemmer, and pull him to safety.
“His leg wound was the most pronounced, his bone was fully showing. Most of the damage was on his stomach the front side”
Thankfully, Bruemmer survived.
In a later interview with KRON4, he retells his ordeal:
“Two people, Amy and Paul on paddleboards … veered over to me. One a nurse, one a policeman who had his cellphone with him and called 911 immediately. From the beach Heath brought two surfboards, one for him and one for me. The three of them, in the bloody water, got me up onto the surfboard”
Now, Bruemmer is recovering at home.
But you can bet he’ll be a bit more careful the next time he decides to take a dip in the Bay.
