During a normal day of fishing at the age of nine, Dr. Chris Lowe pulled a shark out of the water without knowing what it was, but that day unwittingly began his love affair with sharks with which he now works as the director of the shark laboratory at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB).
For many people, the first thing they think about sharks is that they want to bite humans, but with studies and laboratory technology, it was learned that this is not true.
“What I think a lot of people have learned over the last few years is that it’s actually the opposite,” Dr. Lowe said. “They never see the sharks and now we’re showing them using drone footage that the sharks are there all the time but they can’t see them and the sharks just ignore them.”
The shark lab is currently in jeopardy due to a lack of state funding which keeps it from having to pay for its unique staff and special equipment.
According to Dr. Lowe, the lab was prepared to receive state funding by 2024 but the California state budget was worse than expected.
In a late December report from the California State Legislative Analyst’s Office, they estimated that the Legislature will need to resolve a $68 billion budget problem in the upcoming budget process due to a severe revenue shortfall in 2022-23.
“We have saved local communities millions of dollars in beach closures because our science is being translated into education, which is reducing fear,” said Dr. Lowe.
The Shark Lab was established in 1966 when Dr. Donald Nelson joined the CSULB faculty as part of the Marine Biology program and produced over 50 scientific publications, trained 21 master’s degrees and 1 PhD during his 30-year tenure.
Since 1998, Dr. Lowe has been the director of the Shark Laboratory, where he conducts shark studies and analyzes the numbers and movement of sharks from Monterey Bay to Baja California.
For now, the shark lab is looking for donations or ways to receive funding from organizations to keep them going until next year when they can apply for more state funding and funds from other sources.
According to Dr Lowe, they only have funding to maintain their staff and equipment until September and the lack of money will have a huge impact on the work they do.
“We will have to scale back a lot. We won’t be able to give lifeguards monthly updates on where the sharks are because we won’t have as much equipment in the water anymore,” Dr Lowe said. “We will try to keep our buoy system that gives them instant updates, but it’s only nine buoys compared to 100 underwater receivers.”
The Shark Lab has 15 staff members including: a data scientist who shares information with lifeguards and other organizations, field technicians who tag sharks and make repairs, students who help with studies, and more.
Without money, the shark lab would have to lay off its staff, scale back its studies, rely on a couple of volunteers, and scale everything back.
In addition to the work it does with local beaches and lifeguards, the shark lab has also collaborated with students in labs in Mexico since sharks do not know borders.
The collaboration began when some fishermen caught a lab-tagged shark in Baja California and contacted Dr. Lowe.
“We’ve done a lot of these collaborations that have really helped advance not only what great white sharks do in California but also across the border,” he said.
Mexico is considered one of the nations that consume the most sharks in the world and Dr. Lowe says he learned a lot about the cultural differences between what people think about sharks.
For the director, the shark lab has provided a lifetime of learning and also given him hope.
Twenty years ago, the director thought he was in serious trouble because of the loss of so many species due to overfishing, pollution, and climate change, but the recovery he saw in white sharks completely changed his point of view.
“I think when we put our minds to it, we can protect things in a way that still allows people to use the ocean, enjoy it and even take from the ocean, and as long as it’s not overused, we can coexist,” Dr. Lowe said.