OK, so last week was actually the Discovery Channel's annual Shark Week. It was on Monday that the Daily Breeze's Doug Morino looked at sightings of great white sharks locally. And there's more on that today from a San Diego-area blogger.But for two local 12-year-olds, today was most definitely one serious shark day.
Here's the story that Chris Stimpfl and Will Myers relayed to me about an adventure they had this morning at Rat Beach in the Malaga Cove area.
It was a cloudy morning, and the water was murky. With Chris' mom watching from shore, the pair headed out to spearfish, a sport they learned from Will's dad about a year ago.
Dropping into the water from a reef area 20 yards from shore, Will sank down to the ocean floor, about 13 feet below.
"I was just skimming the bottom for halibut ... I didn't see anything. When I was coming up toward the surface, I saw this shadow," Will said. He thought maybe it was a rumored 80-pound seabass he'd heard about.
"Then I looked closely and noticed the prints on it. It was about 6 feet long. Its mouth was closed and it was moving slowly. It was arms-length, really thick."
He started to panic.
"I heard him make a really weird noise with his snorkel, and he came up yelling, 'Shark! get out of the water!' I looked under and there was a giant shark," Chris said.
They raced back to shore, with Chris dropping his spear gun on the way.
"We got washed up on the rocks. We didn't care if we got bruised. We were scared," Will said. "That was probably the scariest moment of my life, by far."
Safely back on the sand, they went to find a lifeguard but couldn't. While Chris' mom tried unsuccessfully to spot the shark's fin in her camera, the boys told others at the beach.
They got a skeptical reaction.
"They were saying it's probably a leopard shark, but we didn't believe them because we had just been watching Shark Week, so we kind of knew it was a tiger shark," Will said.
The pair returned to Chris' home, racing to the computer to find out what they had seen. Images online confirmed their suspicions: it was a tiger shark.
Local lifeguards aren't so sure, however.
Tracy Livotte, captain of Torrance/Redondo Beach county lifeguards, said it's unlikely that the boys would have seen a tiger shark.
"We've had a local pod of dolphins in the area all day. They have a tendency to chase to off any sharks," Livotte said.
Local lifeguards will very occasionally spot trashers or small blues sharks, he said.
And small leopard sharks? Yes. But tiger sharks? No.
"Their food source is so far out in deep water, they very rarely come in," Livotte said of the rare shark sightings.
But among a certain set of locals, word is out. Will said that the first thing he did was post his sighting on Facebook.
"No one believes us because who would think you would see a 6-foot tiger shark?" Chris said.
Readers: Have you seen any sharks recently? Let us know at newsroom@dailybreeze.com.
"We've had a local pod of dolphins in the area all day. They have a tendency to chase to off any sharks," Livotte said.
Local lifeguards will very occasionally spot trashers or small blues sharks, he said.
And small leopard sharks? Yes. But tiger sharks? No.
"Their food source is so far out in deep water, they very rarely come in," Livotte said of the rare shark sightings.
But among a certain set of locals, word is out. Will said that the first thing he did was post his sighting on Facebook.
"No one believes us because who would think you would see a 6-foot tiger shark?" Chris said.
Readers: Have you seen any sharks recently? Let us know at newsroom@dailybreeze.com.
Leave a comment