Man captures video of great white sharks off Long Beach; sightings on the rise in SoCal

LONG BEACH, Calif. (KABC) -- A man who tows boats in the Long Beach peninsula captured footage of great white sharks in the murky ocean waters.

Cal State Long Beach professor Chris Lowe was out in the water when the tower shot the video.

"We have acoustic receivers out along those beaches that are constantly monitoring for them. So we'll go out, probably next week, and see how much time they spent there," he said.

Lowe said that same day he tagged three of six baby sharks he's tagged this season. Last year, there weren't any.

The video shot on Sunday is in the same area off shore. A shark advisory was issued for the area.

"What's made this year a little different is that it's earlier than normal," Lowe said.

More shark sightings were reported in February and March, which is the same pattern that happened during last year's El Nino. It could be an El Nino hangover or a climate change phenomena.

Researchers won't know without more data and a few more years. The sightings also come almost a year after a shark attacked triathlete Maria Kocsmaros.

"I previously did a race in April, and I had a little trouble getting through this one. It's more the thought of something below me and I guess it happening again and because I didn't see it coming or anything that is still kind of in the back of my mind," she said.

She doesn't take for granted her survival or what she faced.

"We're not alone out there. The sharks are more prevalent. There's more bait in the water. There's more food in the water and we've got to be more careful," she said.

University researchers in Long Beach are developing new tools, such as "Fit Bits" for sharks, drones and transmitters, to break down migratory pattern changes.