Since the movie ‘Jaws’ was released 39 years ago, great whites are what most Americans think of when you say shark. Since the 2006 documentary ‘Sharkwater’ came out, people have had a second, almost contradictory view of the ancient predators. The sharks that they fear to swim with are also endangered.

Shark fishing, either deliberately or as by-catch, for food and trophies has endangered many of the world’s shark populations. Great whites themselves are only listed as ‘vulnerable‘ by the IUCN. That, however, is still a sad state of affairs for one of the oldest predator species on the planet.

So, it appears to be all good news this week as a study, published in the journal  PLOS ONE, indicates that great white populations are healthy and rising on both US coasts.

According to the Associated Press, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) is reporting an increase in the great white population in the western North Atlantic region of the United States and Canada. Between the 1960s and the 1980s the great white population in that area declined by an estimated 73 percent. The current estimate indications a population of between 3,000 and 5,000 of the animals.

Researchers attribute the spike to legislation passed in 1997 which prohibited the hunting of great whites in the North Atlantic and also sought to protect more of the animals food supply and make more prey available.

The research was conducted by George Burgess, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research. Burgess and his colleagues from the University of Florida assembled a 10-member team with expertise in all aspects of shark lifestyle and behavior.

Because great whites are both reclusive and transient the researchers examined “aggregation sites” from the North Atlantic to the North Pacific. These aggregation sites are areas tend to congregate because of the availability of food, such as seal, at the sites. Each site has both a resident and a transient population.

The researchers found healthy populations in all areas of that they studied, including the US west coast. The findings alleviated concerns that animals might have to be listed as ‘endangered’ in the U.S.

“That we found these sharks are doing OK, better than OK, is a real positive in light of the fact that other shark populations are not necessarily doing as well. We hope others can take our results and use them as a positive starting point for additional investigation,” said Burgess, a co-founder of the Shark Specialist Group of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature in a statement.

While this sounds like good news for shark populations, shark counting is difficult business. The highly mobile and migratory animals do not surface to breathe like dolphins and whales do and the ocean is a big place.

Overfishing is a global problem and fish populations are down in many areas. Fish farms, which are becoming more common off the coasts of the United States and Canada are also thought to attract more sharks and other marine predators. Some types of pollution may draw in additional sharks as well.

“Sharks are actually drawn towards polluted water. They are expert hunters but they’re not above scavenging through the sewage for a meal,” said Dr Francisco Marcante Santana to the BBC in 2012.

So, if fish populations are down in parts of the oceans and easy prey is available near the North American coasts it could account for an increase in the local shark population without speaking to the global health of the species.

Despite the reports of increased great white populations, the NOAA is reminding people that they shouldn’t change their summer plans. The odds of being attacked by a shark, great white or otherwise, is less likely than being struck by lightning, attacked by a hippo, attacked by a deer, dying in an accident involving a vending machine or dying by falling out of bed.
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