--- description: Research says that the population of great white sharks off both coasts of the U.S. is growing again after years on the decline title: Great White Shark: U.S. Population Growing Again image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7b4773ef02a88500/698698eb169ab00a0827a098/great-white-sharks_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [nature](/tag/nature/) ## nature Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Beachgoers Beware: The Great White Shark Population Is Growing Again by [Nash Jenkins](/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 24, 2014 4:13 AM CUT  This undated photo provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows a great white shark encountered off the coast of Massachusetts This undated photo provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows a great white shark encountered off the coast of MassachusettsGreg Skomal—AP by [Nash Jenkins](/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 24, 2014 4:13 AM CUT [New research](http://mashable.com/2014/06/23/great-white-shark-population-us/?utm%5Fcid=mash-com-Tw-main-link "undefined") suggests that the population of great white sharks off both coasts of the U.S. is growing again after years on the decline. One report ventures that there are over 2,000 great whites living off California — 10 times the amount estimated by a recent Stanford University study. On the other side of the country, scientists haven’t been able to conclude an exact population size, but estimations suggest that the sharks in the Atlantic are rebounding, after a significant drop in the 1970s and 1980s because of commercial shark fishing. The upswing is likely the result of wildlife-preservation efforts over the past two decades, although conservationists are hesitant to celebrate the news. For one, the great white belongs to a group of aquatic species that typically struggle to recover from sharp declines in population. What’s more, their generally reclusive behavior often requires scientists to rely on guesswork when keeping tabs on them — and a dearth of historical information doesn’t help “They’re back on the way up, but to be honest, I don’t think any of us know what ‘up’ is,” George Burgess, a Florida-based researcher, told Live Science. “The fact is, we have no real idea what \[the population\] was before we started screwing around with the environment on both coasts.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2916040/us-great-white-shark-population/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2916040/us-great-white-shark-population/"},"headline":"Beachgoers Beware: The Great White Shark Population Is Growing Again","datePublished":"2014-06-24T04:13:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:35:03.101Z","description":"There are over 2,000 living off the coast of California alone, according to recent studies","url":"https://time.com/2916040/us-great-white-shark-population/","keywords":["nature","Sharks","animals","Conservation","Pacific"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7b4773ef02a88500/698698eb169ab00a0827a098/great-white-sharks_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nash Jenkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7b4773ef02a88500/698698eb169ab00a0827a098/great-white-sharks_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Great White Sharks","caption":"Great White Sharks","creditText":"Greg Skomal—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/nature/","name":"nature"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2916040/us-great-white-shark-population/","name":"Beachgoers Beware: The Great White Shark Population Is Growing Again"}}]}] ```