I began surfing in 1962 and since have spent more time in the ocean than any other recreational facility. Like most of you reading this, the ocean feels like a second, sometimes first, home to me.
Still, I get the occasional reminder that our favorite environment is not our native environment. That often occurs while surfing alone, between waves. It is then, in quiet moments that I lift my legs in the sudden realization that they are dangling like live bait.
Sharks had been off the radar for Southern California surfers until 2008 when tragedy struck in Solana Beach. I’ll never forget that morning, hearing a helicopter hovering near our ocean home, warning people to stay out of the water. The attack victim, as it turns out, was David Martin, a swimmer training for a triathlon near Tide Park (aka Tabletop) in Solana Beach.
Like slowing down after witnessing a traffic accident, the shark attack kept many surfers from the water, but only for a short time. As memory of the tragedy faded, we once again lost our worries.
Human activity seems to have increased greatly since 2008. This and the proliferation of stand-up paddleboards (SUPs), which offer surfers a better angle from which to observe the water beneath them, have led to vastly more shark sightings.
An alternative, and chilling, theory suggests that these predatory animals are increasing in numbers in the shallow waters off our coast where we most often swim and surf. Some believe that overfishing our local waters, or the protection of various forms of sea life, to be the culprit.
Since our coast’s most common sharks, leopard sharks and sand sharks, lack sharp teeth and instead have “crusher mouths,” they pose no threat to humans. Mako sharks and sevengills have the equipment to harm humans, but rarely do so unless provoked.
The most dangerous shark on our coast is what “Jaws” famously tagged with the deserving name, “great white.” While certainly great in its ability to inflict damage on humans, the proper name for this predator is the less dramatic and menacing sounding “white shark.”
It is believed that it was a juvenile white shark that attacked a swimmer in Del Mar last Sunday off 17th Street. This was the second such attack in a week, the first occurring in San Clemente on Memorial Day, and has caused a temporary beach closure in the affected areas.
While thoughts and prayers go out to the victims of these attacks, rest assured that you and your family are in less danger of being bitten by a shark than you are from being hit by a car on the way to the ocean.
Sharks may be increasingly common in our waters, but they generally avoid contact with humans, perhaps in the realization that we have killed thousands of times more of them than they have of us.
And believe it or not, white sharks help keep us from pain by feasting on one their favorite foods and our most painful foe, stingrays. I have encountered white sharks twice, and both times they swam away peacefully. My two encounters with stingrays were far more painful.
