A warning system that helps lifeguards decide whether to close Southern California Beaches in response to nearby sharks may soon cease to exist. The reason is that the organization that created it, The Cal State Long Beach Shark Lab, is in danger of running out of the money it needs to operate.
The Shark Lab has a long and prestigious history in the world of marine biology. The program was established in 1966 by Dr. Donald Nelson of the CSULB Marine Biology program. Over his 30-year tenure, the Shark Lab produced 50 scientific publications, trained 21 masters and one Ph.D. student. One of those masters students was Chris Lowe, who took over as the program’s director after Nelson passed away in 1997. Since then, Lowe has helped the lab keep that legacy alive with the frequent contributions to our knowledge about sharks.
However, that all may come to an end soon. “Our state funding ends in August and the state’s budget doesn’t look very good,” Lowe told NBC 4. The lack of funding is a result of statewide budget cuts that have left the lab needing $7 million from private and nonprofit sources to keep running.
If the lights do go off at the Shark Lab, one casualty will be the California Shark Beach Safety Program. The program was originally created in 2018, in response to concerns about the increasing numbers of white sharks in the waters off the coast of California. Using buoys, ocean floor sensors and tags on the sharks themselves, the system monitors the positions of sharks off the California coast. If one of those sharks wanders too close to a populated beach, the system sends lifeguards a text alert, which allows them to make the call of whether to close the beach or post signs to protect swimmers.
“It’s getting pretty serious,” added Lowe to ABC 7. “We have enough money to carry us through June but after that, if we don’t get more funding, we’re going to have to pull all of the equipment out of the water. We won’t be able to monitor sharks along California anymore.”
