The Pacific Ocean lapping the Southern California sand is noticeably warm; fishermen are catching large yellow fin tuna close to shore; and drones are spying on great white sharks.
These are all unusual developments near Los Angeles this summer, and with a heightened awareness of shark attacks on the East Coast and elsewhere, West Coast lifeguards are also on alert for that prominent dorsal fin.
“Today we saw about 14 different sharks,” said Seal Beach Marine Safety Chief Joe Bailey. “They were all great white sharks, all juveniles, about five to six feet long, all about a year old. Right now, they’re bottom feeders. If they were bigger, they’d be looking for sea lions.”
Bailey has been marine chief in this quaint beachside community south of Los Angeles for 11 years and never before has he had a confirmed great white sighting in the Seal Beach area. He says he doesn’t know if there are more white sharks closer to shore this season, more people in the water to increase the chances of a shark encounter, or if better technology is just helping to find them.
Surfers and stand up paddleboarders with GoPro cameras are capturing images of the torpedo-shaped creatures. The sharks Bailey and a Seal Beach marine officer spotted on the morning of July 1 were detected by a camera-carrying drone flying just past the surf line in a bay called Surfside.
“There’s no beach parking so not a lot of people go to that beach,” he said of Surfside. “It’s fairly uninhabited. We posted signs to let people know that there are sharks in the water and they should use their own good judgment.”
Ralph S. Collier, president and founder of the Shark Research Committee and director of the Global Shark Attack File, says great white sharks, like other animals, are just going where their prey are going.
“Sunset Beach was a nursery for white sharks for about four or five years. Then, they moved to Manhattan Beach in numbers for another five or six years and now they’ve moved down to Orange County,” he said. “It’s not unusual what they are doing. They are following their food. That’s what’s moving these sharks up and down the coast.”
The food that great white sharks are chasing includes grunion, small silvery fish and bay rays. But humans? No, they are not on the menu. “They don’t want to have contact with us,” said Collier. “They won’t tackle anything larger than they are because of the threat to their well being.”
Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific Assistant Curator Chris Plante says great white food sources are more abundant closer to shore this year for some reason. “There are a lot more species of fish that range further south that we’re seeing a lot more of in Southern California, like yellow tail that we would typically see in Mexico. It’s not uncommon to see them here, but it is uncommon for the amount we’re seeing. It could be that the warming water is making fish happier here. It looks like we’re setting up for a stronger El Nino than last year.”
When Orange County lifeguards took the ocean’s temperature in early July, it was 66 degrees. “We’ve had summers where we never had water over 64 degrees,” said Bailey.
Of course, there are many types of sharks living in the ocean off the West Coast. “There’s the thresher, the mako, leopard sharks, all these different kinds out there,” said Bailey. “The ones that attack are [great] white sharks, tiger sharks and bull sharks on the East Coast.”
Since 1900, Collier says there have been 190 unprovoked shark attacks along the Pacific Coast of North America. “More than 80 percent of the attacks on humans are investigation. The shark isn’t sure what the object is. It’s coming in, looking it over, smelling the water and when it can’t determine what it is, it takes a test bite to see if it’s edible.”
To keep from being sampled, Collier says avoid bright, colorful bathing suits and flashy jewelry, anything that might attract a shark’s attention.
Meantime, lifeguards are prepared to implement several levels of shark policy. The lowest is what Bailey says the coast around Los Angeles is experiencing now, when sharks are seen but not acting aggressively toward people. For that level, you get lifeguards and some signs to warn you.
The next level is if a shark is circling, or gaping its mouth, or bumping into people. In that case, lifeguards would get everyone out of the water. The concern rises, however, when a shark takes a bite out of something manmade…like a surfboard. That, says Bailey, would close a beach.
He adds that there are far more common dangers that beach visitors should be concerned about.
“Statistically, there is one death in the United States from a shark attack a year. Drowning, though, is the second leading cause of death in people ages one to 14. Ten people in the U.S. die from drowning every day. When people are around water,” he said, “it’s important to learn to swim and always swim with a buddy.”
Bailey encourages beach visitors to talk to lifeguards. “They’ll tell people the safest place to go, where the rip currents are and if there are sharks out there.”
Another ocean danger more likely to bother a human than a shark is the large stingray population in Southern California. “Marine biologists say we have about 30,000 in Seal Beach, especially where the river meets the ocean,” said Bailey. “We have about 500 stingray victims a year.”
Michael Pless, owner of M&M Surfing School, has been one of those victims 21 times. “The predators are mostly gone so there’s nothing to keep stingray populations in check,” he said.
Stingrays are food for seals and sharks. People used to hunt and eat them, too. To avoid a sting, Pless advises surfers to do the stingray shuffle.
“If you shuffle your feet, you might scare the stingrays away, otherwise if you step down on a stingray it will slash you to defend itself. And if you get stung, stay in the water and get to a lifeguard.”
Both Pless and Bailey say the best treatment is soaking the puncture wound in hot water. “It can take anywhere from 30 minutes to three hours,” said Pless.
“The hot water breaks down the protein venom,” explained Bailey. “You may show up at the lifeguard station with a painful sting and leave with just a cut after soaking your foot.”
Kayaker Christine Elkington of Thousand Oaks suggests plunging your foot into the hottest water you can tolerate. Her attack happened in La Jolla two years ago. “It was at low tide. I was in shallow water walking the kayak out when it flipped and dumped everything. I was looking for my keys when, WHAP. I always shuffle my feet now. I know the stingrays are out there.”
Chief Bailey says the shuffle does seem to work to ward off stingrays. As for sharks, Collier says there is not much to worry about. “If you see seals charging to the beach or fish jumping out of the water, there’s probably something under there chasing the animals. And then, you might want to get out of the water.” QCBN
Zonis is an affectionate nickname for Arizonans who crowd Southern California beaches in the summer.
For more information about West Coast great white shark sightings, go to www.sharkresearchcommittee.com/pacific.
Photo caption: Chris Plant at the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific says sharks should be more afraid of us than we are of them. “They are a species we should work toward conserving and respecting. They keep the ecosystem healthy and clean by eating sick and injured animals.”
Photo courtesy Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific
Photo caption: On a typical summer morning between 9 a.m. and noon, there are about 37 lifeguards on duty in towers and trucks in the Seal Beach area.
Photo by Frederick Michaels
Photo caption: M&M Surf School owner Michael Pless tells surfers to shuffle their feet as they walk into the water to scare stingrays away.
Photo courtesy Dave Peeters Photography
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