Dragging back a mangled kayak. Photo: CBS Los Angeles
Over the past few days, a flurry of shark attacks has struck the Central Coast of California. And while shark attacks are not necessarily unheard of in these parts, troubling trends have experts on alert.
Thursday evening, Ralph Collier, president of the Shark Research Institute, claimed that a great white between eight to 10 feet long attacked a surfer just north of Wall Beach. The surfer sustained injuries to his knee along with cuts elsewhere on his body. He is expected to make a full recovery. KTLA reported that as a result of the incident, nearby Vandenberg Air Force Base closed Surf, Wall, and Minuteman beaches for 72 hours.
The following day, KEYT reported that about 60 miles north of the Santa Barbara Harbor, two fishermen named Lou and Charles Christman got a distress call from the Coast Guard. A great white had attacked a group of kayakers. The Christmans responded to the call and found a man clinging to his damaged kayak. They proceeded to pull the man aboard their fishing boat and take him back to Vandenberg Air Force Base’s boathouse.
“This is probably a 16 to 18 foot shark. It was a big one,” Charles Christman told KEYT reporter Tracy Lehr.
According to CBS Los Angeles, three kayakers who were friends with the group had been attacked earlier continued fishing in the are. An hour later, they sent out another distress signal, one of their own. This time when the Christmans responded, they pulled up to two men towing a sinking, mangled kayak in need of help.
“There was no getting back on my kayak, it was beat up,” Ryan Howell told NBC. “I’ve been in small car accident, and as far as impact, it felt worse than that. It felt like I was getting hit by a car.”
Following these incidents, officials closed the Santa Barbara County beach for the remainder of the day.
Chris Lowe, white shark expert who runs the Shark Lab at Cal State Long Beach, told GrindTV: “In general, these sorts of annual events at the same location have also occurred in Hawaii, Hong Kong, and Australia. This has led people to speculate that they are caused by the same sharks, but there has never been any scientific evidence to support that supposition.”
