By Jonathan Allen



Tobey Curtis, one of the government scientists who worked on the study, said in an interview his team could only capture trends in shark abundance and the study could not be used to estimate the total number of sharks in the Atlantic's northwest region, which extends from the U.S. East Coast.

"We don't know what portion of the total population we're documenting," he said.

But Curtis said the findings suggested an "optimistic outlook" for the recovery of the species, which is an apex predator and one of the largest fish in the oceans. The study's authors described their study as based on the largest white shark dataset yet compiled from the region.

The findings were based on data stretching back about 200 years, including population surveys, fishermen's logs and newspaper clippings recording sightings of the elusive creatures.




"Since protections were put in place, the population appears to have started recovering," Curtis said.







(Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Lisa Shumaker)