Talk about your scary Jaws moment. A ten to twelve-foot Great White Shark was sighted swimming with surfers at a San Diego Beach just this week. The predators are known for frequenting the area to hunt for seals this time of year, but swimmers were seemingly unaware that such a large animal would be swimming quite so near.
Watch the video below of the giant shark and tell us what you think. If you were a surfer, would seeing this scary footage of a huge shark swimming so close to where you are keep you out of the chilly waters of the Pacific Ocean?
Astutely, the CBS news reporter posited that the footage would likely discourage more than a few beach goers from entering the water.
Great White Shark Sighting in waters off beach in San Diego, California
The scariest part is that at that size, the share is not likely to be full-grown. Young great white sharks eat things like fish, sting rays, and even other smaller sharks to grow. Once they reach a sufficient size, they tend to include hunting seals and sea lions in their dietary routine. Counting on having the element of surprise, when they are hunting prey like seals they often position themselves just below the water’s surface to be able to rise up and charge forward into the animal. Like surfers in wet suits, seals are simply more blubbery; thank goodness giant sharks seem to like the taste of the fattier meat than most Cali surf jocks and skinny surfer girls provide.
Think about riding a wave, thinking everyone at the beach is cheering you on for it. Instead, people on the beach see you perched atop a surf board with an animal this size following slightly underneath and right behind you.
If this video footage and photos of the Great White Shark spotted swimming with surfers at the San Diego beach does not spark new shark movie scripts to be written by Sci-Fi screen writers in Hollywood, I don’t know what will. Mix up a little bit of the plot from Point Break with Keanu Reaves and Patrick Swayze’s characters with the traditional Jaws music score and you have a sleeper hit film in the making… but please. Don’t make a shark movie in 3D.
We’re scared enough going in the water at the beach already. Da-dum. Dah dum. Da-dum dadum dahdum…. Argh! Crunch, snap, chew, gulp — enough is enough without a big, toothy grin like the shark that ate the surfer girl in the canary yellow bikini bathing suit in two of three proficient chomps floating in airspace in front of our noses as we sit and try to crawl backwards through our rocking recliner stadium style theater movie seats while eating Ju-Ju Bees.
Fortunately for the surfers, after eating a seal or sea lion, a Great White Shark can go another month or two without needing to eat another meal.
Let’s hope the shark sightings in 2011 were all of sharks who came so close to the shore out of pure curiosity rather than to re-fill their bellies.