Tomales Point & Point Reyes is an important feeding area for one shark species.

Sub-adult and adult White Sharks regularly and predictably feed on their pinniped prey in this area (Anderson et al. 2008; Jorgensen et al. 2010; Sherrill & Codde 2025; Andrzejaczek et al. 2025). This feeding area is located next to important California Sea Lion Zalophus californianus haul-out sites and Pacific Harbor Seal Phoca vitulina richardii and Northern Elephant Seal Mirounga angustirostris rookeries (Sherrill & Codde 2025). For example, surveys report an annual total of ~4,000–5,500 Pacific Harbour Seals during the breeding season in recent years (Sherrill & Codde 2025). Predation events are regularly observed here by pinniped monitoring groups and have been documented (Anderson et al. 2008). For example, 30 predation events and seven scavenging records were incidentally observed between 1982–2004 (Anderson et al. 2008).

Since the early 2000s to 2026, annual dedicated surveys were conducted to photo-identify individual White Sharks, estimate their size, and deploy acoustic and satellite tags to track their migrations (Jorgensen et al. 2010; Andrzejaczek et al. 2025). From 2006–2022, for instance, 355 sub-adult and adult White Sharks were tracked with acoustic tags (134 of which were tagged at Tomales Point) amounting to over 760,000 detections on a coastal array of receivers (Andrzejaczek et al. 2025). Of these, 53% of individuals and 19.1% of detections were recorded in this area, highlighting its regional importance. Tagged White Sharks predictably and regularly use this area between mid-August to mid-February, before moving into offshore waters as part of their annual migration (Jorgensen et al. 2010; Andrzejaczek et al. 2025).

From the 2000s to 2025, regular pinniped surveys were conducted across the Point Reyes National Seashore, which included counts of shark bites on hauled out Pacific Harbor Seals (Adams et al. 2009; Sherrill & Codde 2025). There were ~1,300 shark bites recorded, with up to 59 bites observed in a single month, June 2013 (Anderson et al. 2008; Sherrill & Codde 2025). Surveys are biased to the months of March–July to coincide with breeding and moulting seasons of pinnipeds, while peak White Shark activity in the area, based on acoustic telemetry monitoring, is from mid-August to mid-February (Andrzejaczek et al. 2025). The mismatch means that White Shark predation is likely underestimated in these pinniped surveys. Northern Elephant Seals are also periodically seen with fresh shark bites, but these data are not tracked (S Codde pers. comm. 2026) and, in contrast to other sites in California, this large species is not the primary prey target for White Sharks here (Anderson et al. 2008). Tomales Point & Point Reyes has the smallest average length of White Sharks (~365 cm total length; TL) across central California aggregation sites for mature individuals (Año Nuevo, ~410 cm TL; Farallon Islands, ~440 cm TL; PE Kanive unpubl. data 2026). This feeding area is primarily used by sub-adult White Sharks and juvenile White Sharks newly recruiting to pinniped hunting grounds. The size-at-maturity is defined as >450 cm TL for females and >380 cm TL for males, and subadults are >300 cm TL (Francis 1996; Pratt 1996; Tanaka et al. 2021). California Sea Lions and Pacific Harbor Seals are abundant in the area, and these smaller prey species, compared to Northern Elephant Seals, are likely better targets for smaller (210–300 cm TL) White Sharks to learn how to effectively hunt.