Great white shark population growing, new US analysis of data finds

A new look at research on great white sharks in the northeast Pacific Ocean indicates the population is probably growing rather than endangered, according to an international research team.

"The good news is that white sharks are returning to levels of abundance," said George Burgess, director of the Florida Programme for Shark Research, who led the new study published in the journal PLoS ONE.

The findings belie an impression of alarmingly low numbers left by a 2011 Stanford University study which led to petitions by conservationists to add white sharks to state and federal endangered lists, Burgess said.

However, Stanford researcher Barbara Block said the data in the two studies is not inconsistent.

"We stand firmly behind the findings of our study, and our ongoing research only increases our confidence in its accuracy," she said in a statement.

Great whites are the largest of the predatory big-toothed, flesh-eating sharks, growing as big as 6.1 metres.

Burgess credits the growth in shark numbers to 40 years of US federal protections for marine mammals that sharks feed on, especially sea lions and seals. In addition, white sharks have been protected as a prohibited species, making it illegal to bring a great white to dock.