Shark Sightings Along the Coast Take a Bite Out of Surfing Time

An unusually large number of shark sightings in Santa Monica Bay have been reported in the last two weeks, but county officials said they have verified only the presence of large but harmless basking sharks.

Nearly a dozen sightings of 15-foot to 20-foot sharks have been reported off the coast between Malibu and Santa Monica, said Capt. Gary Crum, a lifeguard with the Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors.

Lifeguards cleared nearly 30 surfers from the water off Surfrider Beach in Malibu on Friday after announcing that an 18-foot great white shark was cruising nearby. But county officials now say that the report was premature and highly unlikely, noting that basking sharks--which eat plankton and not people--share many characteristics of their meat-eating brethren.

As a precaution, however, the county’s five rescue boats and the Coast Guard are patrolling the bay for sharks and investigating any sightings telephoned in from fishermen, Crum said.

Lifeguards in a boat spotted the shark at Surfrider Beach swimming under a woman paddling a 14-foot kayak. They plucked both the woman and the kayak from the water but lost sight of the shark a short time later.

“We haven’t ruled out that there is (a) great white shark in the area, but I think the odds are pretty remote,” Crum said. “We’re trying to err on the side of safety by letting the public know what we’ve seen, but we don’t want to trigger any hysteria.

“If we can verify that there’s a great white shark out there, then it’s a whole different set of circumstances. But there’s never been a great white shark attack in Santa Monica Bay and it’s pretty unusual to even find them here.”

Just Getting Some Rays

Two 18-foot basking sharks--named for their love of the sun’s rays--were spotted five miles off Will Rogers Beach by the Coast Guard shortly before noon Monday, munching on a large blanket of plankton.

On Sunday, a lifeguard said he thought he spotted what appeared to be a great white shark about a mile east of Surfrider Beach, but marine experts have been unable to verify that report.

Marine experts say the unseasonably cold water in the bay and a burgeoning seal population may have attracted some sharks to the area.

Two great whites between 7 and 8 feet long were caught by fishermen off the Manhattan Beach Pier in October. Marine experts said at the time that the catch was unusual because great white sharks tend to travel alone and in deep waters. Basking sharks travel in schools.

“From everything I have heard, it sounds more like basking shark behavior,” said Roger Rosenblatt, professor of marine biology at the Scripps Institution for Oceanography in San Diego. He said that, since the movie “Jaws,” many people falsely think they are seeing great white sharks.

“It wouldn’t be unprecedented but if there was a 20-foot great white shark in the area, it would be among the longest in the world. But you can rest assured that if somebody has said they saw a great white, other people will be seeing them too.”

Despite numerous phone calls to lifeguard stations along the bay, most of the local surfers and swimmers seem to be taking the news in stride. Wave riders were out in force throughout the weekend and about half of the surfers who came out of the water Friday jumped back in after a 30-minute wait.

“They’re about to become part of the food chain,” said one cautious surfer who decided to pack in his board for a day. “I can’t understand it. These waves aren’t even that good.”