Date Time Study estimates 200-plus white sharks breed each year A study on the vulnerable white shark has shown that approximately 206 to 252 sharks breed on Australia’s east coast each year. The joint study involving The University of Queensland, NSW Department of Primary Industries and Stellenbosch University in South Africa has used genomics to estimate the yearly number of “effective breeders” in the white shark population. UQ PhD candidate in the Molecular Fisheries Laboratory,Dani Davenport, said “effective breeders” contributed offspring to the population each year. “Effective breeders are like the ‘genetic vault’ that carry the genes of the population and pass them down to the next generation,” Ms Davenport said.