Any time a shark appears in the lineup, it’s a cause for a spike in heart rate. If you’re bobbing in the lineup waiting for the next wave, you have the option of paddling away. When you’re standing on the beach taking a picture of your son and his friend swimming and a shark appears behind them, veiled only by the translucency of a breaking wave, there’s less of an element of control. The latter dream scenario played out recently in Manhattan Beach.
The debate in this case, after the picture of a shark “photobombing” two young swimmers went viral, was whether or not the fish in question was a shark or a dolphin browsing the shallows. This run-in comes on the heels of a high volume of shark sightings throughout Southern California.
It must be quite an anxiety attack for any parent to watch their kid and friend play blissfully unaware that they are mere feet from nature’s apex predator. Worse yet, there’s nothing that can been done short of not entering the ocean. If the shark was hungry, it could’ve easily eaten–admittedly a scary thought. Regardless of the frequency of shark sightings in the area, they are neither strangers to California waters nor have they attacked any humans at this stretch of beach in 2013. White sharks are regulars in the area because they give birth there.
