It was the catch of the day, and one that left stunned beachgoers doing double takes.
A laid-back fisherman coolly shoved his hands inside the mouth of an 8-foot shark after reeling it onto a Los Angeles-area beach, then hauled the toothy predator back into the Pacific as horrified onlookers watched the wild scene unfold.
The hair-raising encounter happened at Sunset Point Beach, where the unnamed angler landed what witnesses believe was a juvenile shark, possibly a great white, measuring roughly 8 feet long.
Video of the encounter shows the exhausted shark flopping on the sand while a crowd gathers around.
Rather than panic, the fisherman methodically worked the hook loose, at one point reaching directly into the shark’s mouth before dragging the animal back into the surf. According to eyewitnesses, “the shark swam off into Santa Monica Bay and was not seen again,” suggesting the young killer survived the encounter.
The nerve-racking scene is the latest in a string of shark run-ins along Southern California’s coastline, where experts say juvenile great whites have been turning up in unusually high numbers this summer. “We’re expecting a very sharky summer,” Dr. Chris Lowe, director of the Shark Lab at California State University, Long Beach told The Los Angeles Times.
Lowe has attributed the spike in juvenile great white sightings to unusually warm El Niño waters, which create an ideal nursery habitat close to shore.
The young sharks can feast on stingrays and other prey while staying out of reach of larger predators. The beachside rescue also echoes another viral moment from earlier this year.
Back in April, 20-year-old angler Kevin Phan reeled in a juvenile great white at nearby Hermosa Beach before stripping down to his underwear and carrying the shark back into the ocean. The unusual rescue won widespread praise online, with many applauding the young fisherman for giving the shark another shot at survival.
The sightings have not stopped there.
Drone footage recently captured a juvenile great white breaching behind a boogieboarder in Newport Beach.
Another aerial clip showed a shark cruising near unsuspecting children swimming in the water.
Despite the startling encounters, marine scientists stress there is little reason to panic.
Sharks are not vicious or malicious toward humans and do not hunt people for food. Bites remain rare and typically happen when a curious shark mistakes a swimmer for a seal.
With Southern California now serving as a seasonal nursery for juvenile great whites, experts say beachgoers should expect more sightings, even if the odds of an actual attack remain exceedingly low.
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