For Southern California surfers, there’s going to be a lot going on this summer—and they may want to keep an eye on more than just the forecast in the coming months.
With ocean temperatures rising and forecasters watching the development of El Niño in the Pacific, marine scientists are warning that warmer water could bring an increase in some of the ocean’s most notorious residents—including juvenile great white sharks.
“We predict it’s going to be a very sharky summer,” said Dr. Chris Lowe, director of the California State University Long Beach Shark Lab, in recent weeks and months. But there’s something else, attracted by the warmer waters, that will be lurking beneath as well.
The warning comes as sightings of juvenile great white sharks are already increasing along Southern California beaches. In recent years, warming ocean temperatures and persistent marine heat waves—often referred to as “The Blob”—have created ideal habitat for young sharks, allowing them to expand farther north and remain in local waters longer than they historically have.
But according to Lowe, sharks may not be the biggest concern for beachgoers.
“The other thing about El Niño is that sharks aren’t the only ones that like them, stingrays do,” Lowe explained. “Rays for days.”
That might sound harmless compared to a shark, but surfers know otherwise.
Every summer, Southern California beaches report hundreds of stingray injuries. The barbed tails of round stingrays can deliver a painful sting that many victims describe as feeling like stepping on a hot knife. Warm-water years often lead to increased stingray populations in shallow coastal areas, exactly where surfers, swimmers, and beachgoers enter and exit the ocean.
Related: Great White Shark Swallows Camera in Wild SoCal Encounter (Video)
Fortunately, there’s a simple defense.
Veteran surfers and lifeguards swear by the “stingray shuffle“—a technique that involves sliding your feet across the sand instead of taking normal steps when walking through shallow water. The movement alerts buried stingrays to your presence and gives them a chance to swim away before contact occurs.
For surfers, the prospect of warmer water, cleaner conditions, and more consistent swell often makes El Niño years something to celebrate.
But as ocean temperatures continue to climb, this summer’s lineup may include more than just good waves. From juvenile great whites cruising the shoreline to stingrays hiding beneath the sand, California’s marine life appears ready to take advantage of the changing conditions, too.
Keep those eyes peeled, and those feet shufflin’.
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