Saturday the 29th, a woman was bitten in the leg, while wading at San Onofre. The beach is closed today, Sunday the 30th. Welcome to summer!
Hope she heals up.
Beach closures are stupid
Well heck. If all the bites in Florida were reported and the officials were so quick to react in such a draconian way, Florida beaches might be closed everyday. EDIT: This was a way worse attack than it seemed from first reporting. Hoping for the best outcome for this young lady.
According to local news outlets, the victim is now in a medically induced coma. Had severe loss of blood, and was nearly drowned.
At first I thought it was a far less severe attack. However, it was apparently a violent attack on a swimmer at Church. I really like that spot. Hoping for the best for this young lady.
They shut down ocean access completely in San Clemente yesterday and possibly today.
The whole SanO area is a well known shark pupping zone and sightings are frequent and becoming more so, especially in the spring during the pupping season.
The attack happened right at dusk. FWIW
There doesn’t seem to be a lot of shark awareness amongst the general public, and maybe this extends to surfers too. Or, at least, the summer surfer variety. Bruce Moncrief, the friend I am working on the Ecuadorean balsa boards I am offering, is a lifelong, career lifeguard.
Even though he has a long established landscaping business in Nor Cal, he has kept his position as a lifeguard over decades while looking forward to retiring with his sweetheart, a retired doctor who lives full time in Ecuador. He has been developing water safety down there while bringing lifesaving equipment to Ecuador’s beaches, training lifeguards, teaching surfing and promoting water safety to a young population. He has a dozen of my boards down there that he generously makes available to both locals and visitors.
Anyway, back to the point about the shark population along the Cali coast. He has talked with a lot of folks studying the shark population and their habits with tagged sharks in our respective areas. In one case he mentioned juvenile white sharks. He was told they commonly travel up and down the coast along Santa Monica, Malibu, Arroyo Secos and nearby beaches and surf spots about 100 to 200 yards outside the surf break.
It leaves you pause with why incidents don’t happen much more frequently than they actually do!
Juvenile white sharks feed almost exclusively on fish like halibut and shovel nose guitar fish (they also love grunion) which is why they are often seen cruising near sandy beaches…
A few years back while surf fishing down at trails I found just the head of very large guitar fish that had been removed from its body by one clean bite…
If you want to know more about sharks or to report a sighting…
http://www.sharkresearchcommittee.com/index.html
A buddy of mine surfed Lowers yesterday and it was just as crowded as ever including several notable WSL tour surfers. He drove up there hoping for a rare chance to get good uncrowded Lowers. He got the good part but the uncrowded part…not so much.
Here in New Jersey we are way overdue for a shark attack. A lot of people don’t know this but the movie Jaws was loosely based upon a string of shark attacks in NJ in the summer of 1916 that occurred over a two week span. 5 people and a dog were attacked. 4 of the people died. The first of those attacks happened right in front of a hotel that is one of my clients at work. Its exactly 25 miles up the coast from my house.
The book 12 Days Of Terror written about the attacks is worth a read if you are interested in these things. This link is pretty good too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_Shore_shark_attacks_of_1916
The movie made from the book is below…part two is also on YouTube.
I was watching the news this morning when this story came up. The reporter said something to the effect of “shark sightings on the rise”, which got my Wife & I discussing the local shark population. What we came up with was:
-
Summer is coming, and the general public’s thoughts are turning towards beach days, so the news outlets need a sensational story. Shark attacks are ALWAYS sensational news, even in Utah. I would bet even money that 99% of us on this forum have been asked, at some point, if we’re afraid of sharks. So when the public’s overblown imagination is actually captured on video - it’s not news, it’s NEWS. Never mind that driving on the highway is FAR more dangerous…
-
The shark population may or may not be rising, but the main reason behind the increase in shark sightings is the dramatic increase in the camera population. GoPro, Phone, Drone, etc use has increased exponentially over the last couple of decades, so more shark sightings are being captured and sent to hungry news outlets.
Wishing the bite victim and her family well.
Beaches still closed I guess they are just now seeing them? Someone caught a great white off the SC pier january2016 ( https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SPDJ_H-Hbto ) and nothing happened
What about the dog?
I’m pretty sure attacks are up. Not sure if they are up per capita people using the ocean. I had a scare last summer a couple miles away from a known summer juvenile shark hangout. Foggy and out all alone. Which is why I surf it. I think it’s probably a bad idea to surf there during the summer, but know I’ll be back. Is that fucked up thinking? I also surf there with a leash which is something I would not do in similar conditions in case I need a tourniquet. Is that fucked up thinking? I text my wife I’m paddling out, text her when I get out. I don’t want to just disappear and worry everyone until they figure out what happened. Surfing can be a narcissistic pursuit. Mike
That thinking sounds more logical than anything haha
WHAT happened to the DOG???
Sunday evening me and the lady went for a walk on the SC pier around sunset. I saw a bunch of splashing around straight out from t street. A couple minutes later one breached and only its tail was still in the water at one point. It was almost definately a white, at least 10 feet long. Then, a couple days ago, one of my buddies who is a state lifeguard told me that his boss flew over in a helicopter and saw a group of 15 sharks off of capo beach. Yesterday i saw another video shot in san clemente of at least 5 sharks all in waist deep water about 30-40 feet from shore. Fins everywhere. What makes this year so much different I wonder?
Just got back from the beach. Saw 4 different fins around
20 feet off the beach at the Peninsula (around 65th st). Talked
to a couple of friends who are still in the Marine Bio biz and
we were talking about how the past warm water summer could
have affected the offshore/Catalina ecosystem causing these
juveniles to come in to the mainland shore in such large numbers
this year. Also could have been a good year for mama as far as
food goes and she had more than one kid!
Your time is up. Only large shark I ever have seen was about an 8’ Blue hanging from a hoist out at Port San Luis. Used to fish for Threshers, Blues and other assorted sharks all night long on the Pismo Pier. Never in many years of surfing all up and down the Calif Coast have I ever seen a fin. Even at the the Santa Maria Rivermouth and Davenport Landing (known spots). Felt that vibe though. Just heard a report on the radio of a large White off of Newport. I wish her a speedy recovery. Heard all kinds of story’s and shark talk in general when I stopped in at the “Ghetto” on the way to Del Mar Sat. Lowel