Tuesday on Discovery’s Shark Week is all about sharks and the city: At 9 p.m., Sharks and the City: Los Angeles sets out to uncover why a record number of great whites are being sighted in Southern California, while Sharks and the City: New York (10 p.m.), narrated by Chris Noth, explores the reasons the New York Bight could one day become a new great white hot spot. Here’s a preview.

Sharks and the City: Los Angeles

For 30 years, Chris Lowe, director of the CSULB Shark Lab Right, has lived and worked in California. He never thought he’d see the day when he’d be able to go out and tag baby white sharks in his front yard. But he knows the increased numbers that have been amazing for him have also been startling to the public. Sharing the information his team is learning, he hopes, will help change perspectives. “I think it’s a good thing,” he says, “and people always look at you odd when you say that. … This is something that I don’t think many people expected because we hear bad news all the time about the environment, overfishing, and things like that. They’re not used to somebody coming and saying, ‘Guess what. These things are coming back.’ So I think that’s an important part for people to see that conservation can work.”

It’s also important, he believes, for people to see how the science is done and why answers take time. In this hour, the investigation leads him to Guadalupe, Mexico, where a growing seal population is bringing in more great whites. “They’re seeing more and more juveniles than they’ve ever seen before, and that’s an interesting part of the puzzle. Historically, they only have seen big animals out there, that’s typically what you see at these aggregation sites. And when smaller animals start showing up, things are getting a little crowded,” Lowe says. “It’s kind of like going to a barbecue and having it open and seeing who shows up. You start to see people competing for ribs that may be coming out. You see how sharks react around each other in that case. The reality of it is that’s kind of a dangerous place for those younger animals to be, because if you get in some big white shark’s way, there’s a good chance you’re going to get scolded. And a scolding from a big white shark could really be the end.”

As you see in the video above, the team observed how larger, older sharks intimidate the smaller, younger ones with parallel swimming (after sizing one another up, the smaller shark gives way) and gaping (the larger shark repeatedly opens and closes its mouth as a warning). It’s Lowe’s hypothesis that the smaller sharks that can’t compete for food at Guadalupe are the ones heading up to L.A.

“Those 9- and 10-foot size sharks are the ones that they see occasionally out at Guadalupe, and they’re the ones being pushed out. Everybody’s gonna defend their plate full of ribs, and they don’t want these youngsters coming in and trying to steal their food. So those youngsters have to find new places to hunt, and Southern California may be the best place because our marine mammal populations, especially on the offshore islands, have just shot up,” Lowe says. “So if I was a white shark and I was looking for a new barbecue place, Southern California would be it for me.”

While he still needs to tag sharks around the Channel Islands to help confirm his theory, he wants to reiterate this message: “Just because there are more sharks, that doesn’t mean people are at greater risk. What it does remind us is that it’s their home. We’ve spent a lot of time and money bringing them back. We pretty much got rid of all the big predators 50 years ago. And we’re now just starting to get used to how to act around them, whether it be seals, sea lions, dolphins, whales, or sharks, it doesn’t matter — they’re all wild animals. They can all be potentially dangerous. But we have to recognize that we’re kind of guests in their home, and we have to learn how to behave that way.”

His best advice: The safest place to be is at the most popular beach. “The reason why I say that is because it’s rare for people to be bitten at really popular beaches. My best guess is that sharks avoid those places. People are loud or smelly; we chase away all their favorite food,” he says. “If you’re not at a popular beach, the next safest thing to do is stay in a group. Surfers that are bitten are most often by themselves, and if you’re in a small group, that reduces your chances. It you’re an ocean swimmer, swim in a group, swim with friends. Statistically, that’s what the numbers are telling us.”

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