Warning to Manhattan Beach paddlers and anglers: leave the great white sharks alone

When a coastal region has a great white shark problem, it generally means that a clear and present danger exists for water users.

But for Manhattan Beach in Los Angeles County, it's the sharks that are at risk of being harrassed by stand-up paddlers trying to videotape them, and by anglers attempting to hook the protected predators.

The state Department of Fish and Wildlife, citing a trend that involves paddlers with GoPro cameras intentionally trying to find white sharks, is warning people to leave them alone or face the possibility of being cited. The same goes for pier anglers.

"White sharks are a candidate species under the California Endangered Species Act and therefore fully protected," Traci Larinto and Michelle Horeczko, part of the DFW's White Shark Status Review Team, said in a statement issued Thursday afternoon. "They cannot be taken or pursued.  The public should take steps to avoid white sharks while fishing or being out on the water."

Though white shark sightings are up this year throughout Southern California, the epicenter is Manhattan Beach, particularly a mile-long stretch from the pier north to a surf spot called El Porto.

Juvenile white sharks–those measuring to about 10 feet–are seasonal residents of Southland coastal waters, and perhaps because of a mixture of abundant prey and warm water, many of them congregate off Manhattan Beach.

(Juvenile white sharks feed primarily on small fish, including sharks and rays. Most sightings occur in summer and early fall. The sharks are believed to migrate into Mexican waters during the winter.)

The increase in sightings could be due to an increase in the number of juvenile white sharks. But a definite factor is a sharp increase in the number of people who stand-up paddle, many while caring GoPro cameras in the hope of capturing footage to share via social media.

"Right now, every surfer/thrill seeker with a GoPro is going out to Manhattan Beach and trying to film them, ride them, and catch them on hook and line," said Christopher Lowe, a Cal State Long Beach professor and white shark expert. "Most people do not understand CESA regulations and that even incidental catch [or] being caught swimming after a shark with a GoPro camera can be considered take or harassment and is a citable, even jailable offense."

Paddleboard sightings began to increase in September. In October, a YouTube video of a close encounter, shared by Mike Durand, went semi-viral. He used a helmet-cam to record a shark swimming beneath his board as he paddled  off El Porto. Video is posted here:

 

Also catching the eye of the DFW was a Nov. 8 post on this website, showing Eric Martin swimming with a 9-foot white shark. Martin, co-director of the Roundhouse Marine Studies Lab and Aquarium at the end of the pier, said he had always wanted to swim with a great white.

Not long after he swam out with a mask and long pole for protection, one of two sharks that were spotted from the pier cruised within feet of him.

Larinto, of the DFW, says this sends a message that this is acceptable and safe behavior.

Martin, who has spotted dozens of white sharks from the pier over the years, said he swam with the sharks, in part, to prove that the juvenile sharks do not present a serious danger to swimmers and surfers.

Fishermen, however, are no friends of the sharks. Martin has watched anglers intentionally try to hook them. Last year, he almost got into a fight with a man who refused to let Martin cut his line, after he had hooked a white shark. The man eventually allowed Martin to free the shark.

Earlier this week KTLA posted footage captured by paddleboarder Nathan Anderson off El Porto. Anderson stated that three white sharks were picked up by the camera, all within 100 yards of one another. The video was uploaded to YouTube on Monday and is posted here:

 

As for fishing for sharks from the pier, it's not illegal. But catching white sharks is illegal and hooking them for catch-and-release seems to fall into somewhat of a legal gray area.

But these are a protected species that may or may not be mounting a comeback after years of overfishing. It's best to leave them alone.

Said Lowe: "One rumor is that a couple of fishermen have caught and killed some sharks off El Porto and supposedly found squid in the stomachs. I just don't think the public understands the ramifications of the law here." 

–Pete Thomas

–Top image shows Eric Martin intentionally swimming with a juvenile great white shark off Manhattan Beach Pier. Credit: Dani Baker

Comments

[Joel Saltzman]

Wake up people! Something is wrong here. In False Bay Africa, they have to tow fake seals to illicit breaching behavior of their sharks. I've personally seen 4 breaches in 6' of water at El Porto without any human inducement. One of my buddies, Randy Wright has multiple shots from Sunset to El Porto of these sharks jumping out of the water. To be able to sit in a kayak and wait for a shark to jump out of the water and get the shot multiple times? Now the DFC wants to cite people for taking their pictures? First it was 4-6' sharks, then 7-9' and now 10'. That's about the size where their diet changes from fish to marine mammals. Since when did El Porto join the Farallon and Guadelupe Islands as shark capital's of North America?

[drudown]

In other news, another instance of human predation in Western Australia by generalist feeder Great White sharks dimly underscores the patent absurdity of the ongoing social conditioning experiment here in the United States (and elsewhere) that "sensationalized fears" of shark attacks are (ahem) behind our evolutionary apprehension of these known, man-eating predators. The mere fact of statistically infrequent hardly ameliorates the FACT that Great White sharks are indeed man-eating predators.

"I'll say!"
/s/ ghost of Lloyd Skinner

Nor is such a dispassionate recognition of the Great White's dangerous propensities mutually exclusive with conservation efforts.

[Porto]

Oh shut up all you animal conservation whatever whatever. It's the open water, you don't own the water and anything underneath it. No one is harming your stupid sharks.

[Noel Huelsenbeck]

This type of interaction was never thought possible so I think we're missing a HUGE learning opportunity. The majority of people still think of Great Whites as man eaters, if we can see the sharks in a new light it's an opportunity to harness the experience as a "Teaching Moment".

We can use this information to further our knowledge of nature and explore questions that might otherwise be overlooked. Such as with Great Whites so close to shore in Manhattan Beach and feeding on small fish and rays what might we be doing to their food source by allowing toxic urban run off to spew into their estuary?

Right now nearly all the beaches in Southern California are closed due to high bacterial counts, and this doesn't take the high levels of heavy metals and other contaminants that are always present along the coastline.

The truth is we humans are hurting these sharks because of lack of ability to control the pollution going into their environment. And I’m complicit too; no one I know in the US is exempt from using more than their fair share of resources.

If we really care about these sharks, or nature in general, then maybe this holiday season we can all ask ourselves a question:

#1 Can we harness our collective purchasing power to create positive change by supporting socially responsible businesses that have less of an impact on the eco-system for these sharks and other creatures in nature. If we do this then I think the sharks would really know we care about them.

[Jay]

To be clear: they are not making a new law or banning this activity. The CA DFW is warning that if you break the law (harassing these animals), you could face a potential citation. In my opinion, these animals are not being harassed. In the videos I have seen (aside from the one where they were jumping in to swim with the sharks), the sharks are showing no signs of stress and if anything they appear to be un-threatened and disinterested after a few minutes. The bigger concern is the commentors that suggest someone will be attacked. This attitude propagates the sensational fear that has been applied to these animals and resulted in them being threatened.

[David McGuire]

Dont blame the sharks when one of these guys gets accidentally bit.
Like other large species of sharks, white sharks should be respected and protected, not over sensationalized. CESA protections for white sharks are pending, but current State regulations make it illegal to capture or harass this species.

[Allan Bartlett]

I agree that it's bad idea to be chasing White Sharks willy nilly for fun, but how is this any different than all the people who go on these "White Shark Expeditions" to places like Guadalupe Island, South Africa, South Australia? This having been said, I don't think we need another law that bans people from this type of activity.