Question

What happened to North American coastal waters when the great white shark population decreased?

Answer 1

Answer:

1) The ray population increased.

Explanation:

Two studies on sharks released this month reveal the populations of great whites in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are on the rise after a period of harsh decline.

The reports, published in the journal PLOS ONE, indicate the number of great white sharks has rebounded since the population was decimated by overfishing in the 1970s and 80s.

“The good news is that white sharks are returning to levels of abundance,” George Burgess, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research who led a study about great white populations in the Pacific, told the Christian Science Monitor.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) conducted its study on the great white population along the western North Atlantic, and credits the United States’ 1997 ban on hunting the shark species for allowing the population to replenish.

Answer 2

The population of Ray increased.

Now I don’t know much about marine life. But I do know that a large shark that must consume great amounts of meat per day in order to survive, would eat something bigger then an oyster, clam or scallop. If a large predator is taken out of its home it’s prey, in this case sharks and ray’s, they prey’s numbers would soon go up.