A great white shark estimated to measure 18 feet was spotted Monday afternoon off the Palos Verdes Peninsula, just after it had bitten a sea lion in half.
The sighting was made aboard Triumphant out of Harbor Breeze Cruises in Long Beach, at about 3 p.m., in 300 feet of water beyond Trump National Golf Course.
Capt. Danny Salas said by phone that there were no passengers on the trip. But there was an NBC cameraman, who will have exclusive footage, presumably for Monday night's newscast.
Kera Mathes, a naturalist form the Aquarium of the Pacific, also boarded the boat at the last minute and did not bring camera gear. (File image at right is generic.)
Salas, who christened his new high-speed catamaran two weeks ago, said NBC had come aboard on a special charter to try to obtain footage of a peculiar-looking blue whale named Hook, because of the odd shape of its fluke.
Instead they were witness to a much rarer white shark predation event, although they did not see the initial attack. (Hook has been sighted off Orange and Los Angeles counties this past week.)
"This shark cut a 2o0-pound sea lion in half with one bite," Salas said. "It was very colorful."
Then the shark's fin emerged, and the shark materialized. Salas and the cameraman stayed with the shark for about 20 minutes.
"It circled around the sea lion and would bite little chunks," Salas said. "Then it swam under our boat, as if trying to chase us away."
The group was still at sea, looking for Hook, at the time of this post.
--Pete Thomas
Note: At the time of this post there were no still images available. White shark photo is a generic file image
Comments