Great White sharks looking for Love

An area of concentrated activity between Hawaii and the Baja Peninsula, known as the “White Shark Cafe” is revealed in this map by 47 great whites equipped with satellite tags.

Satellite tagging by TOPP (Tagging of Pacific Predators - www.topp.org) reveals a previously unknown behavior of white sharks travelling long distances each winter to concentrate in the Pacific for up to six months. During these months, both males and females make frequent, repetitive dives to depths of 300 meters, which researchers theorize may be significant in either feeding or mating habits and reproduction.

“There is something going on there but as yet we don’t know,” said marine biologist Professor Ron O’Dor. “Maybe it’s just a good place to pick up girl sharks.”

The Census of Marine Life is a global network of researchers in more than 80 nations engaged in a 10-year scientific initiative to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of life in the oceans. The world’s first comprehensive Census of Marine Life - past, present, and future - will be released in 2010.

Census of Marine Life Project Map