Halfway between Baja California and Hawaii lies a stretch of ocean that, on the surface, appears to have little going for it. No coastline, no obvious food supply - just open water. Yet every year, great white sharks make the long journey here, abandoning the nutrient-rich coastal waters of western North America where they spend much of their lives.
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This area received its unofficial name – the White Shark Café – in 2002 from researchers at Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station, who were studying great white shark behaviour with the use of satellite tracking tags.
This tracking allowed them to identify a zone that was previously not suspected as favourable shark habitat – but, surprisingly, the great whites were frequently travelling there, moving away from the waters up and down the western coast of North America, known to be rich in food for these apex predators.
But for what? Satellite images suggested the area had very little food available, with some even referring to it as an 'ocean desert'. Scientists speculated that maybe it’s a mating area, maybe a pupping area, or maybe they are gathering there to feed – but if so, then on what?
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"A café is somewhere you might go to get a bite to eat, but it's also somewhere you might go to meet someone special. And since we think they're either eating or mating, we kept it a little bit ambiguous - White Shark Café," said Sal Jorgensen, senior research scientist at Monterey Bay Aquarium.
The mystery was finally solved in 2018, when the research vessel Falkor, operated by the Schmidt Ocean Institute, mounted an expedition to the Café to investigate.
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30 sharks were tagged with much more sophisticated tags this time - with light, temperature and pressure sensors - programmed to pop off and float to the surface on the Falkor's arrival.
"When we get the tag back, it has second-by-second behavioural data on what the white sharks do," said Barbara Block, chief scientist on board the Falkor, who was also part of the original 2002 study.
What the scientists found at the White Shark Café proved the moniker was way more accurate than previously thought. At depths that satellites cannot reach, the ocean was brimming with life – marine plant life, fish, squid, crustaceans, jellyfish, all forming a rich and complex food chain. It was more than capable of sustaining a large apex predator such as the great white shark.
"The high seas covers almost half this planet, and in the high seas there are very few rules - it's almost the Wild West. If we're going to save white sharks and other iconic animals, such as tunas and other sharks, for the next generation, we have to start thinking about where the boundaries should be, where the protection should be," said Block.
"This cruise is a beginning in which we're going to go out and offer the opportunity for policy changes that protect a region that no one would think needs protection for white sharks. Through new knowledge, we can reduce ignorance and translate that into action."
Top image: Front view of great white shark, Guadalupe, Mexico. Credit: Arturo de Frias Photography/Getty Images
