![]() “Some of the fishing camps in Baja, the small fishing villages in the Sea of Cortés, that used to have white sharks are now empty.” It’s that the center of gravity has shifted somewhat north,” he said. “It’s not so much the abundance of sharks. He attributed the movement to the warming ocean caused by the El Niño weather pattern. “It’s the furthest north white shark pups have ever been documented.” “This year we not only saw pups, but we saw dozens of them,” Van Sommeran said. ![]() That was surprising, given that young sharks are usually seen in Southern California and Baja. Sean Van Sommeran, the executive director and founder of the Pelagic Shark Research Foundation in Santa Cruz, said a single 5-foot-long shark pup was seen in Monterey Bay in June 2014. A big group of juvenile white sharks was also spotted in Monterey Bay, the first time anyone can remember a shark rookery this far north. At least 15 great whites, including an 18-footer, were seen in June in and around Monterey Bay near popular spots for paddleboarding, kayaking, swimming and fishing. The predators, which average 15 to 16 feet in length but can grow up to 21 feet and weigh as much as 7,000 pounds, typically return from the deep ocean to feed at the Farallon Islands this time of year. Large numbers of great white sharks have been seen this year in Monterey Bay and elsewhere off the coast of San Francisco. Both were seriously injured, but survived, according to the book “Shark Attacks of the Twentieth Century.” On July 8, 1926, Norman Peixotto and his dog Lucky were attacked off Bay Farm Island in Alameda. The tourists were pretty excited.”īay shark attacks may not be unprecedented. “This is the first recorded predation event I know of in the San Francisco Bay,” said David McGuire, a research associate at the California Academy of Sciences who directs the San Francisco-based conservation group Shark Stewards.Īfter viewing the viral footage, he said, “It definitely looks like a white shark, about 8-10 feet, from the phone video sent to us. But while they have been documented inside the bay in the past using electronic monitoring, they have rarely been spotted by eye or camera lens inside the Golden Gate, let alone seen stalking and attacking prey. Courtesy Stanford Universityįall is prime time for great whites off the coast of San Francisco. A great white shark swims in the waters off the Farallon Islands in this undated handout picture from Stanford University. ![]() The scene was an indication of how the carnivores move within the so-called Red Triangle, an area roughly between Monterey Bay, the Farallon Islands and Bodega Head, according to marine biologists. “That’s the awesomest thing I’ve ever seen in my life!” “It’s Jaws! It’s Jaws!” he bellowed, breaking into his own rendition of the theme song from the classic thriller about a shark with little appetite for seals. ![]() “That’s a great white! Holy crud!” yelled the boy in the video taken by tourist Meredith Coppolo Shindler, which showed the telltale dorsal fin skimming around a deep red plume of blood left by the butchered pinniped. The attack was recorded in all its gory detail by a tourist standing on a dock, complete with the superlative-laced exclamations of a boy who had a once-in-a-lifetime view of the carnage.
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