Everyday I come to the County Line Beach to watch the surfers riding down the waves, but today, July 21, 2013, a beautiful foggy Sunday afternoon, as I admire the marine layer coming in, I spot a dead leopard shark being pulled by the two local lifeguards.
The two young gentlemen, who have been working as lifeguards from Point Mugu to Leo Carrillo for nine and six years, respectively, never saw a shark in that area before.
They believe the leopard shark got killed by another kind of shark, due to the 14 inches diameter triangle marks near its head.
This bottom feeder shark, also referred as zebra shark or tiger shark, was probably pushed by the tide from Baja California, since the wind was coming from the South.
This leopard shark, which was probably a female due to its apparently birth canal, is harmless to humans. As the older life guard mentions, “My daddy and I used to play with its tail when I was little.”
This species is mostly fished in the waters off California where, after a period of population decline in the 1980s, new fishing regulations in the early 1990s reduced harvesting to sustainable levels.
Duna DiVito is an eight-year-old Malibuite who loves journalism.