Tracking great white sharks with technology's help.

Byline: Reuters

Scientists are using drones and other technology to study great white sharks along the coast of Southern California to better understand interactions between these marine predators and people and assess the risks to human beachgoers.

The two-year study by the Shark Lab at California State University Long Beach deploys drones to track the sharks from the air and also tracks them with underwater robots. In addition, the scientists tag sharks with a transmitter to follow their movements.

"Drones have actually changed our world," said Shark Lab Director Chris Lowe. "They've become a much more powerful, cost effective tool. So in the past we used helicopters and planes, and it was very expensive."

Although a few fictional movies have made shark attacks on humans seem common, they are actually rare. Humans kill many more sharks than sharks kill humans. But they can be deadly. The Maine Department of Marine Resources said a 63-year-old New York City woman died last week after being attacked by a great white shark while swimming in the Atlantic Ocean. It was the state's first confirmed deadly shark attack.

"Despite the fact that shark populations are going up and more people are using the water than ever before, we're not really seeing more people actually being bitten by sharks," Lowe said. "In fact, in some years, the rate has gone down. So what that tells us, as a scientist, is that we're not on their menu at all. But occasionally accidents happen."

From Santa Barbara to San Diego in California, the Shark Lab researchers have been flying drones along the coastline to count the number of sharks and people and look at how close the creatures are to the shore and swimmers. The coastal community of Del Mar, north of San Diego, is home to a great white shark nursery, the researchers said.

Lowe said he hopes the research will help lifeguards protect the public by better understanding how sharks behave and whether some species are more aggressive than others.

Shark Lab researcher Patrick Rex said the scientists are trying to determine what factors increase the chance of people encountering the sharks.

"We're also trying to figure this out for white sharks as well," Rex said. "What environmental parameters bring them closer to shore and maybe closer to humans."

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