Shallow Water Sharks: Discover Palos Verdes’ Hidden Leopard Shark Farm

However, now is the peak season. Leopard sharks are native to this area, and spring is especially active in offshore waters.

“This is a great time to be out at sea,” said Amanda Stovall, interpretive coordinator at the Aquarium of the Pacific, citing three seasonal marine phenomena: the gray whale migration (northward migration runs from December to April), the upcoming Grunion migration, and the baby boom in leopard shark nurseries.

The entire Palos Verdes coastline serves as a nursery for a variety of marine life, she added.

“It’s a very productive environment with lots of upwelling, and the kelp forests provide really clean habitat for a lot of animals,” she said.

Leopard sharks, a shiny, spotted fish named for the black saddle-like spots along its back, are common along the Pacific Coast from Oregon to Baja California, but are particularly abundant in the warm, shallow bays of Southern California, she said.

Typically 4 to 5 feet long, they are considered harmless to humans and are benthic animals that feed on crabs, earthworms, and small fish. Each spring and summer, large flocks of females gather in protected coastal waters (such as the coves off Palos Verdes), drawn by warmer temperatures that promote the development of young females.

These areas are also relatively safe from large predators, creating ideal breeding grounds for sharks to give birth to live pups, often just a foot long, before swimming back into the deep ocean.

Merchant said she sees something different every time she goes out to sea.

“Part of the fun is being there with people experiencing it for the first time,” he said. “I love taking people who have never seen a tide pool or been in the ocean and showing them something really cool.”

Starting from Terranea Cove, a rocky shore surrounded by steep coastal cliffs, Merchant leads daily leopard shark tours, as well as tidal pool tours, paddleboarding, and fishing tours. He partners with Terranea to handle the bulk of the reservations and splits the $185 per person admission fee with the resort.

He said he is the only company offering guided kayak tours of the surrounding waters and the only marine tour operator with permission from the city of Palos Verdes to take kayakers to the tide pools at Sacred Cove, an inlet within the Avalon Cove coastline that will be closed to the public starting in 2024 due to the Portugal Bend landslide.

The decline in visitors has allowed life to inhabit the rocky coastline and foster a rich marine ecosystem within the rocky mountains.

“Before, people would come and scavenge creatures from the tide pools that they shouldn’t have ingested,” he says. “But now they’re amazing. They’re exquisite.”

Gliding through a dense kelp forest feels like skimming the surface of another world. Huge stalks of kelp are anchored to the ocean floor, and their leaves float on the water’s surface, creating a choppy green canopy.

Paddling through the water feels like dipping a ladle into a thick stew.

It is in the open areas that sharks can be seen swimming low along the ocean floor. “They are the sweepers of the ocean,” Merchant said, constantly scavenging shallow waters in search of food.

Leopard sharks can grow up to 8 feet long. However, here they are mostly juveniles, and sometimes adult females (we found one over 6 feet long).

During our 90-minute paddle, we also saw stingrays, schools of fish, and an adorable family of harbor seals lounging on the rock wall that protects their nursery from the currents.

Merchant said it’s also common to see dolphins and whales cruising around the kayaks.

“Once you see dolphins up close and swim under a boat, you won’t want to take visiting friends and family to places like Griffith Observatory, Venice Beach or the Chinese Theater, where you’ll find a great playground just steps from your front door,” he said.

Grunion Run

Of course, leopard sharks aren’t the only special springtime fun at our beloved coastal playground. It is also the beginning of grunion season.

For those unfamiliar, the annual “Grunion Run” is a natural phenomenon in which thousands of small silvery fish land on Southern California beaches at night to spawn. At high tides after full moons and new moons, the fish ride the waves onto the beach, where the females bury their eggs and the males fertilize them.

If you go outside on a good night, you’ll see fish bobbing on the sand as far as the eye can see.