Rise in shark sightings making California beachgoers wary
Scientists attribute rise in sightings to healthy marine life
A kayaker paddling south of San Francisco earlier this month thought he hit a rock. Instead, he looked down to see a great white shark taking a bite out of his boat.
Some 400 miles south, another shark attacked and almost killed a mother of three a few months earlier.
Such incidents along with hundreds of sightings have made this the summer of sharks for beachgoers in California.
“It’s too close for comfort,” said Adriana Razo of Long Beach, Calif., who brought a carload of children to a nearby shore, where shark advisories have been posted periodically this summer. “You bring your kids to the beach and you want them to have fun, but you’re scared at the same time.”
The number of shark attacks in California has steadily increased since the 1990s. From 1990 to 1999, there were 28 reports of sharks making aggressive contact with swimmers, surfers or boaters, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. In the past seven years, that number has risen to 40. The reports include any attack, regardless of whether it resulted in injury or death.
The phenomenon is not new on the East Coast. The number of shark sightings off Massachusetts is also on the rise, but beachgoers there have paid attention to what may be lurking in the waters since Jaws thrust great whites into the national consciousness a generation ago.
Chatham, a small town in southern Cape Cod, has even become known for its shark sightings, and people flock to its shores in the hopes of getting a glimpse of the creatures.
“Many of their shops are selling shark stuff, from mugs to T- shirts,” said Gregory Skomal, senior fisheries scientist for Massachusetts Marine Fisheries. “There’s been an economic boom from the presence of these sharks. This is in the absence of a fatal attack — that might change things.”
For Californians, increased shark sightings are largely a new deal.
Home to the nation’s entertainment industry, some have even viewed the finned, toothy visitors for their filming potential more so than potentially dangerous animals. In Long Beach, lifeguards confronted film crews in June for baiting the water with bloody fish guts to attract the sharks in hopes they would gather for a Hollywood moment.
While sightings are difficult to track, lifeguards and city officials say this summer has been unprecedented.
Kayaker Steve Lawson wasn’t injured in the July 11 attack in Santa Cruz, a beach town 75 miles south of San Francisco. But Santa Cruz Fire Chief Jim Frawley called the attack “extremely rare,” and closed all beaches within one mile of where the incident happened for four days.
“The shark came from below, grabbed the front of his bow, lifted it up and out of the water along with him and dumped him out,” Frawley said. “Nobody in recent history can think of an attack to this degree in the area in the last 80 years.”
Months earlier, a shark attacked Leeanne Ericson on April 29 as she swam at San Onofre State Beach near San Clemente, Calif., her family said. The mother of three lost half her right leg in the attack.
At Capistrano Beach, a popular spot in Dana Point south of Los Angeles, almost 40 shark sightings have been logged since May. The beaches have been under shark advisories almost every day for the past two months, said Jason Young, chief lifeguard in Orange County. This year has been the most active for shark sightings in the two decades he’s worked the beaches, he added.
In Long Beach, shark sightings were practically absent until last summer, said Cameron Abel, captain of the Long Beach Marine Safety Division. Now, they’ve peaked to their highest ever. So far, Long Beach has posted signs 11 times warning about the presence of sharks after the animals have been spotted near the coast.
Scientists say a rebound in sharks is good news for oceans — even if it’s met warily by people.
Shark protections have increased for the past 20 years and now their populations are finally coming back, said Chris Lowe, director of the California State University-Long Beach Shark Lab.
It’s been illegal to hook a great white in the state since 1994, and populations of sea lions and other species that provide a source of food for sharks have risen in the past couple decades as well.
“The minute you say the word shark, they think ‘oh dangerous animal,’ ” Lowe said, “but the reality is that thousands use Southern California waters, and they are amongst those sharks all the time, but we just don’t see people being bitten by sharks all the time.”