'Jaws' fear simmers down after lots of hype

Last week's headlines about the supposed great white shark sightings in Massachusetts would have you believe that Martha's Vineyard, which served as the setting of the 1975 film that forever made swimmers fear dorsal fins poking out of the water, was finally living up to its cinematic fame.

" 'Jaws' returns to stalk Martha's Vineyard," boasted the (London) Independent. " 'Jaws'-size fear sweeps Vineyard," the Boston Globe said. One blogger stretched it even further, proclaiming "' Jaws' comes true."

The reaction was swift. Beaches were closed, and an aerial search for the possible Jaws imitator ensued. But by later in the weekend, the beaches were reopened, fears were subsiding, and the Boston Globe reported beachgoers were undeterred by the shark sightings.

You can't blame people for being unmoved by the hysteria. For one, a man was charged with disturbing the peace for concocting two of the sightings. And secondly, shark attacks in Massachusetts are extremely rare; only four have occurred since 1670--that's right, in over 300 years--and the last fatality was in 1936.

-- Tony Barboza

Photo: Al Seib/Los Angeles Times

Great white shark released by scientists

Researchers from the Monterey Bay Aquarium have decided that a young great white shark kept for a few days in a floating pen off Malibu is not suitable for display. As the L.A. Now blog reports, the shark was released Sunday. In its shark update, L.A. Now has all the details on the release of the shark, along with nifty information about previous great whites exhibited at the aquarium.

-- Steve Padilla

Scientists pen another great white shark off Malibu

As Veronique de Turenne, writer of the always readable L.A. Now blog reports, marine biologists once again are monitoring a great white shark in a floating pen outside Paradise Cove in Malibu.

The young male shark was accidentally caught by a commercial fisherman and turned over to marine biologists with the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

The biologists now need to decide whether to release the shark or bring it to the aquarium in Northern California.

The scientists have done this before. At left is a photo of last year's shark, which was put on exhibit at the aquarium.

Check out L.A. Now's report on Malibu's great white shark for all the details.

-- Steve Padilla

Photo: Randy Wilder/ Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation

Aquarium of the Pacific celebrates its 10th year

A decade ago the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach was awash in complaints of overcrowded rooms, lousy food and boring exhibits. But not anymore, The Times' Louis Sahagun reports:

The aquarium ranks among the most popular in the nation in attendance, pulling in 1.4 million people a year from throughout Southern California. Aquarium revenues in 2007 were about $39 million, a 26% increase over 2006. Overall, its economic effect in Los Angeles and Orange counties has been about $1 billion, city officials said.

"This aquarium is on the younger side," said Steve Feldman, spokesman for the Assn. of Zoos and Aquariums, "but they are definitely among the biggest and the best."

The aquarium now aims to become a center for teaching the virtues of watershed preservation and offshore aquaculture.

"I'm impressed with all the public outreach they do," said Gary Griggs, director of the Institute of Marine Sciences at UC Santa Cruz. "To have such a resource at the edge of one of the nation's largest metropolitan areas is wonderful."

More than 12 million people have visited the facility, which was built during a nationwide boom in aquarium construction in the 1990s.

Sahagun's story also has a video and photo gallery.

-- Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times

Pandas, sharks and more -- an animal news roundup from today's Times

The eight young pandas evacuated during the recent earthquakes in China have become the Beijing Zoo's media darlings, Barbara Demick reports.

Visitors to the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta can pay to swim with whale sharks, but some experts says the practice could be risky for the sharks, Richard Fausset reports.

Speaking of risk, some SoCal surfers are opting to take the risk of a swim in the shark-populated waters at a beach north of Ixtapa, Mexico, Pete Thomas reports.

President Bush urges offshore drilling in wildlife refuge areas, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger disagrees with tampering with California's coast.

Meanwhile, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, a nonprofit coalition of hunting, fishing and other organizations, filed  a lawsuit against the Interior Department and the Bureau of Land Management in U.S. District Court in Washington, saying the government agency "failed unequivocally" to monitor and mitigate the effects of gas and oil drilling on wildlife in Wyoming, Tami Abdollah reports.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's refusal to let firms test for mad cow disease denies consumers a safety net, a Times editorial says.

-- Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: Andy Wong/Associated Press

Great whites more brainy than 'Jaws' typecast

Depicting great white sharks lunging out of the water to devour seals doesn't seem to argue against the species' reputation as one of the ocean's most bloodthirsty predators. But Smithsonian magazine does just that in a new story, using the sophisticated way in which great whites hunt to show how they ought to be known more for brains than jaws:

Despite this awesome display of predator power, [marine biologist Alison] Kock and other researchers claim that the shark has been defamed: Its reputation as a ruthless, mindless man-eater is undeserved. In the last decade, Kock and other shark experts have come to realize that sharks rarely hunt humans -- and that the beasts are sociable and curious. Unlike most fish," Kock says, "white sharks are intelligent, highly inquisitive creatures."

The presence of great whites have gripped Californians in recent months, with sightings as recently as last week off the Orange County coast. A shark believed to be a great white killed a triathlete in April in the water near Solana Beach. A recent review of shark attacks in California by The Times, however, showed that few attacks are fatal.

--Tony Barboza

Photo: David Lominska /For The Times

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

American surfer injured in shark attack

The Associated Press reports that a shark has injured a 49-year-old American surfer Saturday off the Pacific coast of Mexico, in the third attack in a month.

The Mexican Navy deployed personnel to warn people about sharks at beaches in Zihuatanejo, a resort northwest of Acapulco, according to a Navy official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

He said authorities have not closed beaches in Zihuatanejo, but people were being advised against swimming. A day earlier, a 21-year-old Mexican surfer was killed by a shark off a nearby beach. The attacks came a month after a shark killed a San Francisco man surfing in the same area.

Local Civil Protection director Jaime Vazquez Sobreira said the American attacked Saturday lost his thumb but managed to get to a hospital on his own and was in stable condition.

Last month, a shark killed a 66-year-old swimmer off the coast of Solana Beach. Days later, a San Francisco surfer was killed by a shark in Mexico.

-- Alice Short

Aussie says poking shark in eyes saved his life

An Australian swimmer survived an attack by a  great white shark  by poking the creature in the eye as it dragged him through the water and tore flesh from his left leg this weekend.

Jason Cull, 37, was swimming off at Middleton Beach in southwestern Australia on Saturday when the 12-foot shark attacked.

"Initially I thought it was a dolphin," Cull told the Australian media. "I just remember being dragged along backwards. I was trying to feel its gills but I found its eye and I stuck my finger in and that's when it let go."

The shark tore two chunks from Cull's left leg. He was rescued by a lifeguard.

Last month, a shark killed a 16-year-old surfer off Australia's eastern coast; in Solana Beach, a great white fatally injured a man; and U.S. surfer was killed in a shark attack off Mexico's southern Pacific coast.

--Francisco Vara-Orta

Fatal shark attack stirs fears and memories

A week after a fatal shark attack off Solana Beach in Southern California gripped media attention, The Times' Pete Thomas offers his perspective on the matter in today's Outdoors column in the Sports section.

He sums up the conflict in this excerpt:

White sharks do not seek human flesh. Their chief roles, as adults, are to subsist on elephant seals and make baby sharks.

Their primary haunts, when they're not mingling in the mid-Pacific each winter and spring, are elephant seal rookeries off Northern California and Mexico's Guadalupe Island.

On the other hand, says Chris Lowe, a shark specialist at Long Beach State, "This is not a Disneyland ride. People have to assume the risks when they go into the ocean."

Thomas' view offers some balance between the dangers we Southern Californians face out of the water versus the very occasional risk ... of a shark attack.

-- Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: Al Seib/Los Angeles Times

Mexican authorities killing sharks after attack on surfer

Authorities in Mexico are hunting sharks near the beach where an American surfer was killed in an attack this week, the Associated Press reports from Acapulco. Adrian Ruiz, 24, of San Francisco bled to death Monday after he was bitten on the thigh.

The attack occurred off Troncones beach, a popular warm-water destination for American surfers, a 45-minute drive up the coast from Ixtapa. It came three days after a great white shark fatally wounded triathlete David Martin, 66, as he swam off the coast of San Diego.

The AP describes the response by Mexican authorities:

Mexico's Navy and maritime authorities said they have strung about 200 meters (yards) of lines with baited hooks near the beach in an attempt to catch sharks that may be using the area as a feeding ground.

Emergency personnel are warning beachgoers about sharks' presence near the largely undeveloped oceanfront, said local civil defense director Jaime Vazquez.

It is not clear what species was involved in Monday's attack, but Navy Cmdr. Arturo Bernal said that helicopter overflights had sighted two great white sharks nearby.

"We hope to catch any sharks that there are in the area," Bernal said, noting it was the only way to prevent further attacks.

A nonprofit group called Wildcoast, which sent the photo above, is documenting the efforts to catch sharks. "They have killed 10 sharks already," said Fay Crevoshay, the group's director of communications. "They are still trying to fish more sharks to tell the surfers that it's OK, they've dealt with the problem. They are worried about losing tourism from surfers."

Wildcoast Director Serge Dedina said the killings are driven by what he calls "international shark hysteria." In his view, "surfers are staying away from Mexico in the tens of thousands due to crime, not fear of sharks."

In a compelling story, the San Francisco Chronicle describes Ruiz, the attack victim, as a bartender who saved up each year to go on surfing trips around the world.

-- Steve Padilla and Kenneth R.Weiss

Photo: Enrique Rodriguez/Wildcoast

San Francisco resident dies after shark attack in Mexico

A U.S. surfer was killed in a shark attack off Mexico's southern Pacific coast, officials said Tuesday in an Associated Press story.

The San Francisco man bled to death on Monday after a gray shark bit his right thigh, leaving a 15-inch wound, the Guerrero state Public Safety Department said in a statement.

The man died a few minutes after reaching the hospital, according to the government statement.

Shark attacks are relatively rare in Mexico. In 2006, the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of Natural History reported only one attack in Mexico, which was not fatal. A triathlete was killed by a shark off the coast of San Diego County last week.

-- Francisco Vara-Orta

Solana Beach area to reopen today after shark attack

Beaches in San Diego County that were closed after a deadly shark attack will reopen today, the Times staff reports.

At least eight miles of sea front were closed to swimmers over the weekend after Friday's attack. Retired veterinarian David Martin died after he was bitten in the legs by a shark thought to have been a great white.

There has been no sign of the shark since the attack on the 66-year-old triathlete.

Martin's oldest son, Jeff, told reporters Sunday that his father loved night diving and other sea activities. The son said no one in the family ever would have imagined a shark attack in Solana Beach.

It was the first such attack in San Diego County since 1994.

-- Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times

Shark attack on their minds

At the beach beside the site of Friday's shark attack, the tragedy was the only thing on people's minds. Times staff writer Sue Horton reports:

Surfer Joseph Tutrow, who runs the local surf shop, Strickly Boarding, was preparing his surfboard to go into the water.

He said he was not concerned about his safety. "That shark is long gone," he said. "He's off heading north. It's nothing to worry about. It all depends on where you're surfing. The swimmers were a little bit farther out."

But Eric McHenry, a professional "aerial" surfer, said his mind was on the shark attack, but because he needed to prepare for a big contest next week, "I have to keep surfing."

Some left balloons and plants as a makeshift memorial for the victim of the attack.

--Alice Short

For triathletes, appeal of ocean drowns out fear of sharks

The fatal shark attack on triathlete Dave Martin prompts another triathlete, William Lobdell, to reflect on the fear of swimming in the ocean:

     I immediately think, "Shark!" when a piece of kelp unexpectedly brushes up against my arm, when I spy through my swim goggles a shadowy figure of a large fish below, or when I see a dolphin's dorsal fin pop up near me. There are times when I've unexpectedly bumped into something -- such as a buoy -- and screamed and jumped halfway out of the water.

A great white shark struck Martin as he trained off the coast of San Diego. For coverage of the attack and the essay by Lobdell, a former lifeguard, click here.

-- Steve Padilla

The 411 on the great white shark

The 66-year-old triathlete who was killed by a shark Friday off the San Diego County coast was probably attacked by a great white, according to experts.

Great white sharks, Carcharodon carcharias, are named for their appearance -- a white underside on a body that can grow up to 20 feet long and weigh 5,000 pounds, with teeth as sharp as knives.

Major worldwide concentrations of these sharks are located off the California and New England coasts in the U.S. as well as South Africa and Australia and in the Mediterranean. Some observers estimate that great whites live 30 to 100 years, according to researchers with the Point Reyes Bird Observatory conservation science program in Northern California.

Studies have shown that great white attacks most often occur in the morning, within two hours after sunrise, because it's difficult to see a shark close to the ocean bottom at that time.

The predatory success rate following such attacks is 55% in the first two hours but falls to 40% in late morning; after that, the sharks stop hunting altogether, marine biologists R. Aidan Martin and Anne Martin wrote in Natural History magazine in 2006.

But Dennis Long, who teaches in the department of biology at St. Mary's College and has studied sharks for years, said the media sensationalized great white attacks and gave the animals a bad rap.

"Although the species is responsible for an average of two to three nonfatal attacks on swimmers, surfers and divers each year, its role as a menace is exaggerated; more people are killed in the U.S. each year by dogs than have been killed by white sharks in the last 100 years," Long writes on his website.

For more on these complex creatures, check out this recent Times report.

-- Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

A look back at shark attacks

Shark attacks have rarely been fatal in California in recent years, but at least 28 have been reported since 2003, according to a list compiled by the Canoga Park-based Shark Research Committee.

What follows is a  list of the fatal attacks in California since 2003:

2008
April 25 - Swimmer near Solana Beach near San Diego.

2004
Aug. 15 – Diver at Ten Mile River Beach, Fort Bragg.

2003
Aug. 19 - Swimmer attacked in Avila Beach.

In 2005, Deborah Sullivan Brennan reported that experts think the rate in recent years is double the average of the previous 50 years, during which sharks struck 107 surfers, divers, kayakers or swimmers. Only one attack was reported in the half century before that, in 1926.

For how one person attacked by a shark dealt with her recovery, read "Shark-Attack Survivor Inspires Other Surfers With Her Courage" by the Times' David Reyes in 2004.

-Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: Larry Armstrong/Los Angeles Times

Man killed in shark attack near Solana Beach

A man swimming in the ocean near Solana Beach was killed this morning by a shark, the Times' Molly-Hennessy-Fiske reports.

A man 55 to 60 years old was swimming with others at Tide Beach about 7 a.m. when he was attacked, according to a statement on the Solana Beach city website.

The man, whose identity was not immediately released, was taken to the Fletcher Cove Park lifeguard station for emergency treatment but was pronounced dead at the scene, the statement said.

Swimmers were ordered out of the water along a 17-mile stretch around the attack site, and the San Diego County Sheriff's Department sent up helicopters to scan the waters for the shark.

"The shark is still in the area. We're sure of that," Solana Beach Mayor Joe Kellejian told the Associated Press.

Times staffers are on the story, so more details are to come.

-- Francisco Vara-Orta

Teen killed in shark attack in Australia

A shark attacked and killed a teenage boy today while he and a friend were bodyboarding off Australia's eastern coast, the Associated Press' Sydney bureau reports.

The 16-year-old, whose name was not released, was about 50 yards from shore when the shark attacked around 8 a.m. today, lifeguard spokesman Stephen Leahy told the AP. The victim suffered two large bites, one to the leg and one to the body. He died of extreme blood loss while lifeguards and paramedics tried to save him.

There are about 15 shark attacks a year in Australian waters -- one of the highest rates in the world -- but on average just over one attack per year is fatal, according to the AP. The sharks pictured below are from Nassau, Bahamas, where shark attacks also have been chronicled.

-- Francisco Vara-Orta

 

Photo: Tim Calver/Discovery Channel