A rescued 400-pound sea lion appears to be victim of a large shark attack the day before the shark sighting.
By Ben Marcus/ Special to The Malibu Times
Reports of a shark sighting off the coast of Malibu on July 23 did not cool the heels of thousands of beachgoers and hundreds of surfers trying to catch a potentially historic swell this weekend.
Los Angeles County lifeguard officials last Thursday reported the sighting of a 10- to 12-foot great white shark one mile off the coast of Malibu Colony. It was then seen and filmed further up the coast by Dave Ogle of oglevision.com, a local Malibu surfer/photographer/cinematographer.
Ogle was in a helicopter shooting video of another helicopter flown by Malibu resident Simon Davis near Pepperdine University when he caught sight of the shark.
Ogle had asked his pilot to swing about a quarter of a mile out to sea, while Davis hovered his helicopter with Pepperdine University in the background: “I am always looking down at the water-I’m a surfer-looking for dolphins or whales or whatever,” Ogle said. “As we were banking out to sea I looked down and saw this big shape in the water. At first I thought it was a dolphin but it was too big for a dolphin. Then I thought it was a whale but it wasn’t big enough for a whale, and then I got a little jolt of adrenaline up my back: ‘Holy cow, that’s a white shark, a big one!’”
Ogle videotaped the shark for more than two minutes as the helicopter hovered.
The location of this shark sighting made sense to those who know their local Malibu shark lore. On July 22, 2007, stand-up paddle boarder Vic Calandra was competing in the Tommy Zahn Paddleboard race when he was bumped and harassed but not attacked by a white shark about a mile and a quarter out to sea from Corral Beach. In September of 2008, two local Malibu residents were walking on the beach in front of the Malibu RV Park when they saw a white shark attack a sea lion in a froth of whitewater and blood.
More recently, the day before the white shark was sighted last week, the California Wildlife Center and Marine Mammal Rescue Team rescued a 400-pound adult male sea lion that was believed to have been a “victim of the large shark swimming in Malibu’s waters,” wrote Jonsie Ross, assistant Marine Mammal Rescue coordinator, in an e-mail to The Malibu Times. The sea lion was found on the rocks of Point Dume at Westward Beach.
“He was a huge sea lion, so the shark had to be very large,” Ross said. “It appears he [the shark] had him in his mouth down to his shoulders … the sea lion somehow escaped.”
The sea lion was transferred to the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro and “seems to be hanging in there and hopefully will make a full recovery,” Ross wrote.
Ralph Collier of the Shark Research Committee can estimate the size of a shark by measuring teeth or bite radius, but gauging the size of a shark from 500 feet up in the air is a bit more difficult.
“It is difficult to estimate size for many reasons; however, it appears to be 12 to 14 feet in length. A good size little critter,” Collier said.
As soon as Ogle got his feet back on the ground, he began contacting local news agencies-and the media feeding frenzy began. Ogle’s shark footage was on Channel 4, Channel 5 and it was the teaser for Fox 11 News that night. The next morning, Malibu resident Dorothy Lucey, a host of “Good Day L.A.,” said she was having second thoughts about her son attending surf school at Zuma Beach.
On Friday morning, the predicted swell filled in the coves and points of Malibu. The surf was historic throughout the weekend-some said it was the best Malibu since the legendary monster swell from New Zealand in 1975-but the shark threat had no effect on the crowd.
More than three hundred sixty thousand people visited Malibu beaches on Saturday and Sunday, according to lifeguard officials.
“I was out there shooting at Surfrider all weekend and saw more chaos and carnage than that shark could have ever caused,” Ogle said. “Guess we’ll just have to deal with the crowds and the ever-present sharks. At least the sharks are somewhat protected.”
Editor Laura Tate contributed to this story.