One radio newscaster rants on, “It’s a holiday weekend, the beaches are packed, and there’s sharks in the water, close to shore”-doesn’t’ it seem all too familar?
By Ryan O’Quinn/Special to The Malibu Times
Most of us get chills to this day thinking of when we first heard the music from the film “Jaws” and undoubtedly the film shaped the public perception about the great white shark in particular. However, despite the news of a shark sighting last week, loyal beachgoers turned out in numbers at Malibu beaches during the holiday weekend.
Last Wednesday, a news helicopter reportedly spotted two sharks in the water just beyond the surf near Will Rogers State Beach. The U.S. Coast Guard and L.A. County Lifeguards were called to the scene to investigate.
According to reports, the sharks were about 5 feet in length, around 200 pounds and were moving slowly northward about 150 yards from the shore. Despite rumors they were great white sharks, officials said that could not be confirmed.
“I don’t think we have a definitive confirmation,” said Bob Buchanan, Northern Section Chief of the L.A. County Lifeguards. “Sometimes these sharks look alike, especially at younger ages.”
There were varying reports from the scene among those who saw the sharks. Some reported them as tiger sharks; some said leopards and others claimed they were great white.
However, Ralph S. Collier, who operates the Web site www.sharkresearchcommittee.com and who has studied shark behavior for the past 40 years and reportedly has had his research published in reports by the California Department of Fish and Game and the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, went on a boating expedition with local Frank Nielsen, owner of Malibu Aquarium Service, to confirm the genus of the sharks.
Collier believed the sharks were juvenile great whites. The reason the sharks were in the area, Collier believes, is that grunion were “running” in the same area between July 1 and July 4. The small fish stay beyond the shoreline in the daytime and group beyond the surf, waiting for the high tide to come in and spawn on the beach. The sharks were waiting for “the restaurant to open,” Collier said.
Baywatch units were sent to the area and experts agreed that neither added precautions nor evacuations were necessary. A lifeguard spokesman said the sharks seemed timid and slow moving and were likely looking for food, which would include sardines and other small fish.
L.A. County Lifeguards said they could not detect a change in the number of people flocking to the beach during the heat wave last weekend or the number of people in the water. It seemed that, by Friday, the shark report was not affecting beach attendance at all, as witnessed by the number of tow trucks towing cars illegally crammed on Pacific Coast Highway and the closing of Westward Beach Road.
Some beachgoers admitted to looking twice at a school of dolphins playing nearby, but few people admitted to being frightened by the news of the shark sightings.
“I’m not too worried about it,” said Darren Fisher, a resident of Venice visiting Malibu. “It’s a perfect day for the beach and I’m not afraid to go in the water.”
“It’s a big ocean and there’s a lot of different kinds of fish out there,” said Chief Buchanan. “Our main thing is riptides and water safety and trying to prevent spinal injuries.”
Buchanan said the area does not have a history of shark attacks and they are very rare along the California Coast. A baby great white was caught near Hermosa Beach two months ago, but officials downplayed the necessity for added precaution due to the recent sightings.
There were four reported shark attacks in the state of California last year and there have been only 80 attacks reported since 1950.
“We’ve got a crowd down here today,” Buchanan said, as he perfectly summed up those who flock to the beaches of Malibu. “These are good Californians.”