Are there sharks in sf

Small Spiny Dogfish are found swimming on the bottom of the Bay. The Bay is one of the two primary nursery grounds for Broadnose Sevengill Sharks , along the California coast - they are known to pup here. Soupfin Sharks breed in spring, in the Bay and give birth before returning to the open ocean in summer. Bat Rays are common in the Bay. They look for molluscs, crustaceans and small fish on the muddy bottom.

As an apex predator, white sharks need a healthy structure of other animals in the lower levels in the food chain. The preferred prey of the white shark, coastal seals and sea lions, have rebounded to very high numbers, thereby providing sustainable and plentiful food sources for the sharks. The biologists tagged sharks between and , taking more than 1, photographs and using distinctive, jagged dorsal fins for identification. Similar research published in suggested the presence of adult and sub-adult great whites in the same region.

The headline figure in both studies was the average of a possible range in numbers. Although we share these waters with the occasional white shark, there are many other species that are far more common. Adult salmon sharks resemble juvenile white sharks and are frequently mistaken for white sharks. Both have the cryptic counter coloration with a darker color on the dorsal surface and lighter coloration on the bottom. This adaptation helps the predators blend in with the darker water beneath when looking down, and with the surface when looking upwards.

Adult salmon sharks are medium grey to black over most of the body, with a white underside with darker blotches. Juveniles are similar in appearance, but generally lack blotches. The snout is short and cone-shaped, and the overall appearance is similar to a small great white shark. Occasionally a reddish pink hue is detectable along the white margins.

The great white shark has a robust, large, conical snout. The upper and lower lobes on the tail fin are approximately the same size which is similar to some mackerel sharks. Like the salmon shark the white shark also displays counter shading, by having a white underside and a grey dorsal area sometimes it is brown or blue that gives an overall mottled appearance.

A distinguishing feature of white sharks is the black margins on the underside of the pectoral fins.