I had a write up last week about reported shark sightings in Huntington Beach - one even showing photos with proof posted on the Shark Research Committee Web site.

Lifeguards were calling the claim a hoax, noting increased localism in the area. I tried to get to the bottom of it by tracking down Tom Larkin, who claims his board was bit by a shark. He returned my call this morning, and I gotta say - he made some good points.
Here’s the best one:

“Why would I mess up my brand new, $1,300 board to keep people from surfing dog beach. It’s a crappy beach.”

Larkin was especially irked at being called a liar by lifeguards. The 26-year-old surfer is from Manhattan Beach, and could care less about getting surfers out of the water in Orange County. 

“It’s disappointing when the lifeguards blow you off, or they care about tourism more than safety,” he said.

READ THE PREVIOUS ARTICLE HERE.

Here’s what happened, as he tells it:

He was sitting on his board when it rocked him backward, then lowered into the water. The board started jolting. He thought his leash plug had popped out, because his board started sinking. He tried to paddle into a wave, but he couldn’t catch it because his board was messed up. He rode in on his stomach, and when he got out, all the water rushed out of the bite mark.
“I was like “oh my God,” the bite radius is huge,” he said.
 Tom didn’t see the shark – but he doesn’t think lifeguards should be ruling out a great white shark as a possibility.
“I am not an expert by any means,” he said.
BUT – he sent images over to an expert to check it out, who said there’s no question it was a great white.

So I had to talk to the expert, Ralph Collier.
Let’s throw down this man’s credentials first. He’s the president of the Shark Research Committee, and he started in 1962 as a field investigator tracking great whites’ behavior for the Smithsonian Institute and the Office of Naval Research. He also claims to be the scientist who in the 70s developed the measuring techniques used to calculate shark size based on shark tooth punctures.

And he spits out stats like: “From 1900 to the present, there have been 145 attacks, about 87 percent attributed to the white shark.”

Collier says the great white is indigenous to the Pacific Coast and North America.
“We have had more confirmed sightings along the entire Pacific Coast then they’ve had any other place in the world,” he said.

Seriously???!!!???

Apparently, they come close to shore to give birth, especially around spring during grunion season. Adult female white sharks give birth in March and April, near shore. Then the juveniles – about 4-feet long when born - stick around for a year or two.
As for Tom’s claim, he said there’s no doubt it was a great white that nailed the board. He said there are plenty of photographs from the 20th century of surfboards with no damage to the rudder.
When asked about lifeguards dismissing the claim, he said: “The people the media are quoting don’t know the first thing about it. I don’t critique them in the lifesaving duties. When it comes to science, they should leave it to the experts in that field.”

“There’s no doubt in my mind that they don’t want people to think about sharks when you go to the beach,” he said.
He said the shark that bit Larkin’s board was 16-to-17 feet in length. He’s going to pick up the board and physically examine it himself.
“If I was going to guess, it was very possible this was a female shark coming in close to shore to possibly give birth, or has given birth and is still in the area,” he said. 

Oh, and there’s no doubt it was a great white.

As far as the claim that sharks don’t come around here, he cites a number of cases: A white shark was caught off the Huntington Beach pier two years ago. There was a fatal attack of a diver in 1959 in La Jolla. And a kayaker was killed in Malibu in 1989, with the other kayaker’s body never found.

He forgot to mention the great white picked up a few years back about 16 miles off the coast of Huntington Beach, taken to the Monterey Aquarium to be put on exhibit.

“We have to realize our place in nature. We’re subject to the animals that live there. For anyone to assume that couldn’t happen, they’re foolish,” he said. 

So now that we know they’re out there hanging out - what do you do if a shark comes up to you?
- Don’t panic or splash around, stay calm, and try to remove yourself from the water as quiet as possible.
- Being too erratic might provoke them.
- Surf with others
- If you see fish jumping out of the water, that means they’re being chased by a predator.
- And if you feel like something creepy is watching you, get out of the water.

(Cue Jaws music here) 
 

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