There’s been an unusual amount of shark sightings reported from San Onofre the past few weeks - and one encounter just a few days ago - down at San Onofre State Beach.

On the Shark Research Comittee Web site - which tracks sightings along the Pacific - stand-up paddleboarder Brian Hovnanian wrote that he actually had what sounded like a pretty scary encounter with a shark. Hovnanian and buddy Lance were at the reef south of Dog Patch at San Onofre State Beach about 8:30 a.m. about 50 yards from the shore in 6-foot deep water.

Here’s what he says happened:  “As I was paddling out, my friend was paddling about 30 feet behind me when all of a sudden it felt like something hit the back of my SUP, then slammed into the back of my left calf, forcing me to lose my balance and I feel backward. The shark was now on top of my SUP and I was lying backward on top of the shark, as it was on my board. The shark slithered off the board back into the water.

This all happened so fast, and I believe when I fell on the shark, it scared it and it tried to get away from the board and me. I still had my paddle in my hand, jumped to my feet on my board and looked at my leg, to notice nothing had happened to my body or board. By now my friend had paddled quickly to me and could not believe what he had just seen right in front of him. He made sure I was OK, luckily I was, then we paddled back out to the line-up and caught a wave from the next set and paddled in thinking how lucky I was.

I’m not sure what kind of shark it was, but it did have a gray back and white underside and was about 5 feet in length. It might have been a Mako or White Shark.”

The Shark Research Committee points out that an unprovoked shark attack is “any physical contact between a shark and human, or piece of equipment being utilized by a human, without any known provocative action by the subject which might cause the shark to strike out.”

To make things even spookier, there have been a ton of sightings of sharks in Orange County reported to this Web site the last few weeks. Read the rest of this entry »