Sighting of a great white shark

The Orange County Register reports on a sighting of a great white shark, spotted two miles offshore near Doheny State Beach Sunday by a whale watching charter boat.

Captain Chad Steffen said the shark, about 15-foot long, was cruising alongside the Ocean Adventure catamaran at about 2:30 p.m. when it caught his eye. A marine biologist on board also saw the shark, but by the time Steffen tried to swing the boat around for spectators to get a look, it was gone.

“It all happened within a few seconds,” he said. “We watched him swim behind us through the prop wash, he didn’t come back to the surface,” Steffen said. The charter boat waited around for about 10 minutes to see if the shark would come back, but with no luck. “He was big. I do a lot of free diving and fishing myself, so I’m in the same water as that guy,” he said of the shark.

--Alice Short