A great white shark was spotted two miles offshore near Doheny State Beach today by a whale watching charter boat.
Captain Chad Steffen said the shark, about 15-foot long, was cruising alongside the Ocean Adventure catamaran at about 2:30 p.m. when it caught his eye. A marine biologist on board also saw the shark, but by the time Steffen tried to swing the boat around for spectators to get a look, it was gone.
“It all happened within a few seconds,” he said. “We watched him swim behind us through the prop wash, he didn’t come back to the surface,” Steffen s
aid.
The charter boat waited around for about 10 minutes to see if the shark would come back, but with no luck.
“He was big. I do a lot of free diving and fishing myself, so I’m in the same water as that guy,” he said of the shark.
The sighting comes after a man was killed by a great white in April in Solano Beach in San Diego County just 30 miles south of Orange County. The 66-year-old was swimming with a group of people just 150 yards off shore while training for a triathlon when the shark attacked. Read more from that story here.
Check out the Google map I pulled together of all the recent OC shark sightings. View Larger Map
There have also been a number of Orange County sightings, with one surfer claiming his board was chomped on by a great white in Huntington Beach. An expert from the Shark Research Committee agreed. Read more here.
That was the first time in six years of working on one of Dana Wharf Sportsfishing boats that Steffen has seen a great white – and the only other one he’s seen in local waters was in Catalina. Run-ins with smaller Makos are more common, he said.
Steffen speculated that the increased number of shark sightings could have something to do with the colder-than-normal water. Great whites are more known for hanging out in Northern California.
“That could have something to do with what they’re doing here,” he said. “I was pretty excited, kind of shocked. You don’t see them very often at all.”
Doheny surfer Nyle Schafhauser said it’s pretty scary thinking about sharks out there, but surfers are on their home turf.
“They’re out there. It’s their ocean, what are you going to do?”
More stories from the Beach Blog:
State cracks down on San Onofre nude beach
Grunion run at Doheny delights despite the rain
Warmer water brings sea life out to play, including season’s first blue whale
