Dr. Chris Lowe specializes in all things sharks, especially great whites. The director of Cal State Long Beach’s Shark Lab—who is well-known for his appearances on National Geographic, BBC and the Discovery Channel—can tell you more about this reclusive species in one half-hour conversation than you would get in any Shark Week program or documentary on Netflix.
He grew up on Martha’s Vineyard, and his family tree features a long list of whalers and commercial fishermen. “I don’t remember when I learned how to fish or swim,” Lowe says. “I was just constantly in the ocean.”
Although hooking fish was a commonplace occurrence for young Chris, he’ll never forget catching his first shark and becoming obsessed. He just wanted to learn as much as he could about the species. “Having no one in my family ever go to college, I didn’t really know what to do,” Lowe explains. “I kinda had to fumble my way through that process. . . . But I think the key for me was I kinda knew what I wanted to do, and I was determined to do it.”
After earning a B.A. in marine biology at Barrington College, Lowe went on to obtain an M.S. in biology at Cal State Long Beach, where he studied under then-Shark Lab director Donald Nelson. While working on his Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Hawaii, he received word that his good friend and mentor had passed, leaving Nelson’s position open. But Lowe never saw himself settling on great whites, thinking they were an insanely overrated Hollywood muse. “I swore I’d never do it,” he says. But the fact that the behemoths were abundant in the waters off Long Beach, where juvenile whites learn to hunt fish in the shallows, made the decision all but inevitable. “The babies are just too cute; they really are,” Lowe says. “They’re amazing little animals. . . . Mom drops them, and they’re completely on their own, and they have to figure out everything. . . . I began to realize how fascinating they really were and [thought about] what I could do to change people’s perspectives.”
Lowe recently partnered with California Assemblyman Patrick O’ Donnell on Bill 2191, the White Shark Population Monitoring and Beach Safety Program, which would provide essential funding for proper tools used to study sharks. Monitoring the sharks and their increasing presence staggeringly close to popular SoCal beaches is a vital part of equipping lifeguards and public safety officials. “There’s been no state or federal funding for shark research,” Lowe says. “This is a really exciting opportunity because for the first time, some people are recognizing the importance for supporting this kind of work at the state level.”
He and other white shark researchers aim to figure out what effects climate has on migrating patterns of the Carcharodon carcharias, as well as to better provide real-time data to water-safety officials. “Lifeguards can’t just be swimming out there and pulling people out of the surf; they have to know more about the wildlife that are on those beaches because they’re on the front lines,” Lowe says. “They’re dealing with the public and the ocean on a daily basis. That’s where we come in: We can provide them with that information, and they in turn can provide the public with that information.”
Lowe is hopeful people’s perspectives will change once they learn more about the great whites. “They’re gonna go from fearing them to wanting to protect them,” he says.
