San Francisco, Oct 18 (IANS): A marine animals research group has said that they located a record number of sharks in the waters off the Southern California coast this year.

On Saturday, Cal State Long Beach Shark Lab, which has 120 underwater listening stations from San Luis Obispo to San Diego along the coast of California to track sharks, said its team had tagged 38 sharks, more than triple the number that they were able to tag last year.

Taking to Twitter, Chris Lowe, director of the lab, said: "So, even with Covid-19, we tagged more sharks this year than we have any other year," Xinhua news agency reported

He explained that usually in the fall the sharks would migrate to the south due to water temperature in Southern California getting cooler.

Hence it was a surprise for researchers to find so many sharks were still swimming in the region.

According to a comprehensive study on the world's shark population released this July, scientists found decreasing shark populations in a number of areas all around the world largely due to overfishing and climate change but the California shark population was thriving.

On the other hand, despite the increased shark presence surfers don't feel they were bothered by the dangerous animal.

The underwater observation stations run by Cal State Long Beach Shark Lab also provide an early warning system for lifeguards in Southern California so they can tell those in the waters that sharks are near.