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"\"&lt;p&gt;All photos Kenan Chan&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong style=\\\"font-size:130%;\\\"&gt;\\u201cI\\u2019ve never seen a shark before,\\u201d I told him.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;\\u201cI guarantee they\\u2019ve seen you many, many times,\\u201d he replied.&lt;\\/strong&gt; &lt;\\/em&gt;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;That\\u2019s an excerpt from \\u201cDefine Sharky\\u201d, an article I wrote a few issues ago about our perception of sharks along the California coast. The gentleman assuring me that sharks have been perving on me from below was Dr. Sal Jorgensen, a shark expert from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Since then, I\\u2019ve carried on with my surfing life about as concerned with sharks as I\\u2019ve ever been \\u2014 more than some, but not as much as most. &lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Then I heard about the &lt;a href=\\\"http:\\/\\/www.nbcsandiego.com\\/news\\/local\\/Lifeguards-Close-La-Jolla-Beaches-After-Hammerhead-Sighting-323325231.html\\\"&gt;hammerhead in La Jolla&lt;\\/a&gt;. Then I heard about the &lt;a href=\\\"http:\\/\\/www.sanluisobispo.com\\/2015\\/08\\/29\\/3783230\\/surfer-unhurt-after-shark-attack.html\\\"&gt;woman getting hit at Morro Bay&lt;\\/a&gt;. These clips, plus various headlines from the East Coast, South Africa and Australia, make it seem like shark encounters are on the rise worldwide. Then, I saw the below video, from the beaches I grew up surfing. &lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;iframe src=\\\"https:\\/\\/www.youtube.com\\/embed\\/lkZML7saXuE?enablejsapi=1\\\" width=\\\"640\\\" height=\\\"360\\\" frameborder=\\\"0\\\" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;\\/iframe&gt;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;The first time I watched the clip it stirred a primal fear within me. I surfed here every day as a teenager. Often alone. How many times was I spitting distance from a white? After more thought, the video was almost encouraging, as it showed sharks and humans peacefully coexisting. But why so many of them? Specialized Helicopters\\u2019 said on its Facebook page that they\\u2019d been seeing them by the dozens this summer. I sent the video to Sal Jorgensen. &lt;em&gt;\\u201cHey Sal, WTF?\\u201d&lt;\\/em&gt;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Things progressed quickly from there. We emailed and texted and rearranged schedules until September 2, when we met at the Watsonville Airport to take a helicopter ride above the beaches shown in the video. Sal brought his computer, and as the chopper warmed up, he walked us through his theory about the surprising amounts of sharks in the area. &lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;\\u201cTypically, small great whites [between 4 to 9 feet] hang out in Southern California where the water is warm,\\u201d he explains. \\u201cBut this year, the water has been so warm that they\\u2019ve ventured north well past Point Conception, which is normally a cold water barrier. And you can see here,\\u201d he points to a graphic of satellite water temperature readings, a composite from the previous week, including the day the above video was shot. Yellows and oranges paint the inside of the Monterey Bay, while a blue ribbon of cold water spans the area outside. \\u201cThe water is now 10 degrees colder outside the bay, so I think the smaller sharks are just sticking in the bay because it\\u2019s so warm.\\u201d&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;He goes on to explain that juvenile white sharks need warm water to maintain their body temperatures (big sharks can stay warm in cold waters because their &lt;a href=\\\"https:\\/\\/en.wikipedia.org\\/wiki\\/Allen%27s_rule\\\"&gt;surface-area-to-volume ratio&lt;\\/a&gt; is lower). &lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Specialized Helicopter\\u2019s chief pilot, Chris Gularte, confirms that the vast majority of the sharks he\\u2019s seen this summer have been juveniles. And while he\\u2019s seen plenty of sharks from the air in his 25 years of flying over Santa Cruz County waters, this quantity is unprecedented. I ask him if he\\u2019s ever seen them acting aggressively toward surfers or swimmers. \\u201cThey\\u2019ll investigate people sometimes. Swim around and check them out \\u2014 the surfers don\\u2019t even realize they\\u2019re there \\u2014 but I\\u2019ve never seen one act aggressively toward a human. And you know when they\\u2019re being aggressive. I\\u2019ve seen big sharks attack seals and dolphins, and it happens with such speed that it\\u2019s hard to wrap your head around it.\\u201d &lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;When I\\u2019d called Chris to make the booking, he told me with unflinching confidence that we would see a shark. But even when we first hovered above the shores of La Selva Beach and I saw how clear the day was, I was skeptical. These are wild and unpredictable animals. How could 20 minutes above waters I\\u2019d surfed for 20 years assure me a sighting? Then\\u2026&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;\\u201cThere\\u2019s one,\\u201d Chris said, pointing out the open window toward the waves off Sand Dollar. We all focused below to see the shadow of a 6 to 8 foot great white swimming slowly outside the whitewater line. It felt like &lt;em&gt;Jurassic Park&lt;\\/em&gt;, like you were seeing something prehistoric in a very unnatural way. Surreal, but awe inspiring. \\u201cEhhhh, that one\\u2019s pretty small,\\u201d Chris said, and just zipped past it. &lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;I was tripping. Like, &lt;em&gt;A bird in the hand, man! Let\\u2019s go get some photos of that thing.&lt;\\/em&gt; But within a minute we saw another, just off the cliffs of the Seascape Resort. Then another off Hidden Beach. And another off Platforms. Four sharks within 10 minutes and we circled back and watched them all more closely. They swam like they were in a food coma, catatonic and lazy. Two of them were about 200 yards off shore, but the other two were swimming in the surf zone or just outside of it \\u2014 in just three or four feet of water. And yes, there were people in the water nearby. (The irony that way more people die in helicopter crashes than shark attacks escaped me until well after we\\u2019d landed.)&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Ever since I saw the above video on Facebook, I\\u2019d been thinking about why sharks are so visible these days. Were there really that many more? Perhaps. But maybe they\\u2019ve always been there and we just didn\\u2019t hear about them as much. Maybe, like white policeman beating an unarmed black man, it\\u2019s nothing new, except now eye witnesses are also iPhone witnesses. The kayaker in San Diego had a GoPro on him. Mick Fanning had a webcast on him. The chopper pilot uploaded his clip to Facebook. Everyone shares. Everyone\\u2019s connected. News travels fast, and scary news at light speed. &lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Maybe it\\u2019s more sharks. Maybe it\\u2019s more visibility. Maybe it\\u2019s both. We can\\u2019t say for sure. What we can say is that you should be less afraid of sharks now than ever before.  A &lt;a href=\\\"http:\\/\\/baseline.stanford.edu\\/Ferretti.etal.2015Frontiers.pdf\\\"&gt;recent study&lt;\\/a&gt; published in &lt;em&gt;Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment&lt;\\/em&gt;, which Sal himself coauthored, explains why.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Using shark attack statistics from the 1950s to 2013 they found that yes, the average number of shark attacks on the California coast has gone up per year, from .9 to about 1.5 people. But when you factor in the increased number of swimmers, surfers, divers \\u2014 which have gone up exponentially thanks to population growth and wetsuit technology \\u2014 your chances of getting attacked have &lt;em&gt;decreased&lt;\\/em&gt; by 91 percent over that 63 year period. &lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;These findings, along with my description of lazy animals coexisting peacefully with humans, is not an attempt to paint great white sharks as harmless. I don\\u2019t think we should ride them like ponys at the county fair. But I also disagree with their depiction as bloodthirsty killers, on the prowl for humans. I don\\u2019t think they should be culled. Our view of these animals cannot be so black or white. It needs to be grey. A silhouetted grey. A grey that\\u2019s bigger and stronger than us. A grey that should be respected and admired from a safe distance. Because they are wild fucking animals. And they were here first.&lt;br \\/&gt;\\n&lt;strong&gt;\\u2014Taylor Paul&lt;\\/strong&gt;&lt;br \\/&gt;\\n&lt;em&gt;&lt;br \\/&gt;\\nWanna see for yourself? Contact the fine folks at &lt;a href=\\\"http:\\/\\/www.specializedheli.com\\/\\\"&gt;Specialized Helicopters&lt;\\/a to schedule a flight above the Monterey Bay. Sharks, whales, surf check \\u2014 they'll dial you in.&lt;\\/em&gt;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;span itemprop=\\\"video\\\" itemscope itemtype=\\\"http:\\/\\/schema.org\\/VideoObject\\\"&gt;&lt;meta itemprop=\\\"name\\\" content=\\\"A Single Shade Of Grey\\\"&gt;&lt;meta itemprop=\\\"thumbnailURL\\\" content=\\\"http:\\/\\/www.surfingmagazine.com\\/wp-content\\/uploads\\/2016\\/05\\/lkzml7saxue.jpg\\\"&gt;&lt;meta itemprop=\\\"description\\\" content=\\\"An aerial tour of familiar California coastline and our gray-suited neighbors that are closer than we think. 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