‘Shadow’ lurking under paddleboarder was great white shark, California video shows
A California man was paddleboarding near the beach when a chilling figure suddenly appeared in the emerald water below, video shows.
It was the “unmistakable shadow” of a great white shark, the paddleboarder, @paddlegoat, said in a July 2 Instagram post, sharing video of the “thrilling and unexpected encounter” near San Diego.
A large shape cruising silently and effortlessly, the shark is initially difficult to see. But as the man paddles closer, there’s little doubt what sea creature he’s floating above — with nothing but a board and few feet of water between them.
“God, there he is,” @paddlegoat says, pointing at the shark.
“I’ll admit it was a bit spooky,” he wrote in the post.
As the shadow swims from view, the camera turns, revealing the encounter didn’t happen out at sea.
It was just stone’s throw from the beach.
“So awesome AND I’m never swimming in the ocean again!” one person commented on the post.
“I know right?? Can you believe how close to shore it was?!” @paddlegoat replied.
Great white sharks are becoming more common in the waters off California and they’re much closer to land than many might realize, researchers with California State University, Long Beach’s Shark Lab told KABC in January.
“When I was a grad student here back in the late 80s, it was rare” to see a great white near the beach, Chris Lowe, head of the Shark Lab, told the TV station.
It’s not rare anymore, Lowe said, as new shark nurseries — areas where younger sharks congregate for relative safety — have been popping up in the area, the station reported. The growing shark population is caused in part by conservation efforts but also climate change, with warming waters turning southern California’s coastline into an ideal habitat for great whites, Lowe said.
“Most of the sharks that we see are 6 to 8 feet long,” Lowe told the outlet. “They’re toddlers, they’re three, four years old. The biggest ones we see in the nursery might be bucking 10 feet, but we just seem to pass through.”
Lowe added that, despite an increased number of great whites, there has not been an increase in attacks.
“So that tells us we’re clearly not on the menu,” Lowe told the outlet. “As long as we leave them alone, they’re generally leaving us alone.”
Shark attacks
Indeed, shark attacks are “extremely rare,” according to John Carlson of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“You have a better chance of getting in a car accident and being injured on your way to the beach than you do actually when you get to go swimming,” he said in a video posted to NOAA’s website.
There were 108 shark attacks worldwide in 2022, according to the University of Florida’s International Shark Attack File. Of those, 57 were “unprovoked” — meaning the victim did not try to interact or agitate the shark in any way — and resulted in five deaths.
If you see a shark in the water, however, don’t panic, Richard Peirce, former chair of the Shark Trust and Shark Conservation Society, told CNN.
“Don’t start splashing around – you’re just going to excite, incite and encourage the shark’s interest,” he told the news outlet.
Instead, maintain eye contact with the shark and read its body language. If the shark appears to be in “attack mode,” you should make yourself as large as possible, CNN reported. If it seems to just be swimming by, try to stay small.
If the shark attacks, experts told CNN you shouldn’t play dead.
“You must try and keep the animal in sight and very slowly and gently try and swim backwards and get into shallow water,” Peirce told CNN. “Again, you’ve got to be careful – large sharks can attack in very shallow depths.”
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