text: Several local shark scientists disagreed with Andreotti and her team’s “pessimistic” prediction for white sharks. They wrote a rebuttal in the same journal in which her findings were published, stating, “due to the complex stock structure of white sharks and the model assumptions made by Andreotti et al, the conclusions drawn cannot be supported by their methods and data”.
  Andreotti says more analysis was conducted, confirming the initial findings. The panel ignored her findings, she says.
  “Our research in 2012 showed how white sharks have been in a poor state for years because of depleted food resources, fishing by-catch, poaching and legal shark nets and drum lines in KwaZulu-Natal, you name it … We’ve been affecting this population for decades, and now we see the result of poor management,” Andreotti says.