New research revealed that the number of great white sharks in waters near Canada and the Eastern U.S is on the rise.
Analysts from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) concluded that the population of great white sharks has increased since 2000 in the North Atlantic region.
Scientists believed that the great white sharks were returning due to conservation efforts enforced by the government. In 1997, a federal act prohibited the hunting of the sharks by adding them in the list of the endangered species list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
"You should be concerned for a good reason. We need these sharks in our waters." James Sulikowski, a professor of marine science at the University of New England in Portland, told the Wall Street Journal. Sulikowski wasn't involved in the study.
Great white sharks play an important role in the ecosystem by controlling the population of other marine animals. The gray seal, one of their main food sources, is also growing in numbers, providing more food for the great white sharks.
Another study published in the journal in the June 21 issue of PLOS One found that the population of the great white sharks had also recovered in the Eastern North portion of the Pacific Ocean.
According to the study, the population of the great white sharks decreased by 73 percent between the 1960s and 1980s. However, the report did not include an estimate of the great white shark population in the U.S., which according to some experts may be somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000.
The report also included data on the areas where people usually encounter these sharks. The researchers noted some human-shark encounters in Massachusetts and New Jersey during the summer, and Florida in the winter.
