{"id":864528,"date":"2026-06-13T12:44:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T12:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/864528\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T12:44:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T12:44:15","slug":"shark-surge-could-be-caused-by-el-nino-expert-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/864528\/","title":{"rendered":"Shark surge could be caused by El Ni\u00f1o, expert says"},"content":{"rendered":"

(NewsNation<\/a>) \u2014 As a \u201cSuper\u201d El Ni\u00f1o<\/a> nears the U.S., California might have another worry on its hands: swarms of great white sharks.<\/p>\n

The warm phase has scientists warning<\/a> beachgoers of sharks traveling north from Mexico up the Pacific Ocean as they try to escape the unusually high ocean temperatures. The peak of the sharks\u2019 activity is expected between next month and September.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose warmer temperatures dictate ecology\u00a0and dictates predation, metabolism, oxygen availability, productivity, everything like that.\u00a0So juveniles can expand their habitat further north,\u201d Dr. Tracy Farana told NewsNation on Friday.<\/p>\n

Farana explained juvenile sharks are most affected by ocean temperature changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cBaby sharks, they\u2019re just like the older sharks: they are cold-blooded,\u00a0(but) they\u2019re more sensitive to those temperature changes,\u201d the environmental engineer and shark expert told \u201cJesse Weber Live<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 They have less energy storage,\u00a0they get physiologically stressed\u00a0with high or low temperatures\u00a0and they\u2019re just smaller in general.\u201d<\/p>\n

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed<\/a>\u00a0Thursday that El Ni\u00f1o is officially here.<\/p>\n

This Super El Ni\u00f1o is predicted to last from November 2026 to January 2027 and would rank among the largest El Ni\u00f1o events in history, with recordings dating back to 1950.<\/p>\n

Despite the likelihood of increased shark activity\u00a0along the Southern California coast, Farana believes wherever there\u2019s an abundance of sargassum, a brown algae, sharks will stay away.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the sargassum comes on shore causing problems,\u00a0it tends to cause hypoxia.\u00a0It suffocates the life underneath it.\u00a0That\u2019s not something sharks are really attracted to,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I wouldn\u2019t be too worried\u00a0about having shark interactions at the beach\u00a0because of sargassum.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NewsNation. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(NewsNation) \u2014 As a \u201cSuper\u201d El Ni\u00f1o nears the U.S., California might have another worry on its hands:…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":864529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[27],"tags":[352405,97754,3809,198845,159,352404,67,132,68,837],"class_list":["post-864528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-baby-sharks","tag-el-nino","tag-great-white-sharks","tag-ocean-temperature","tag-science","tag-tracy-farana","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-wildlife"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116742865915732429","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=864528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/864529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=864528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=864528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=864528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}