In celebration of National Shark Week, UCTV visits the Birch Aquarium to hear from an expert on leopard sharks, Andy Nosal, a Ph.D. student of Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Leopard sharks are a special species of shark found only along the West coast of North America, their territory spanning from Washington to Baja California. A distinctive characteristic of these creatures is their mild temperament. Unlike most sharks, which will bite anything that might be food, leopard sharks are timid and have such small mouths that they pose essentially no danger to humans. In fact, a leopard shark bite on a human has never been recorded by the International Shark Attack File.
Every Summer La Jolla Shores is the gathering site of hundreds of leopard sharks. A common misconception of this behavior is that these sharks convene here to mate or give birth, but in fact scientists are not quite certain what they do at this annual conference.
Watch “Local Legends: The Leopard Sharks of La Jolla Shores” to see what Nosal has determined about why these sharks flock to La Jolla Shores and what they do there.
Check out more programs about sharks.
See what other programs are available in the Perspectives on Ocean Science series!