Shark Attack: California Coast Carnage (Full Episode) | When Sharks Attack

Los Angeles California Home of beautiful beaches and Hollywood Blockbusters But in 2007 a dark story emerges from The depths For Halloween shark attacks in just over Three months locals are on high alert Why have the sharks of California Suddenly flipped the script The answer could affect beachgoers Around the world Calandra is an avid Outdoorsman who Resides on the California coast Of living in Malibu of just a really Good strong sense of community here just An hour drive west of the city of Los Angeles Malibu sits upon the pristine Pacific Coast It's a playland for families Paradise for Surfers and a front row Seat for marine Wildlife enthusiasts Home to gray whales and bottlenose Dolphins sea lions and seals this area Is also A shark Super Highway Cruising these waters are the thresher Shark which smacks and stuns its victims With its long lethal tail The Striking horn shark that prefers the Sandy seafloor and the blue shark named For its uniquely colored skin Despite the presence of these Predators Shark encounters along this Coast are Rare

But that's not the case for much longer Seven Paddle boards both competitively and Recreationally paddle boarding offers a Complete different perspective of the Water you can see fairly deep you can See with swimming underneath you paddle Boarding is a form of meditation but his Calm is about to be shattered It was a annual paddle board race which Was referred to the Tommy's on race Started out normal race the group Separated fairly quickly there was Probably three or four of us out in Front about halfway through the event Something unexpected catches Vic's eye I Ended up looking back as I turned about 30 feet 40 feet behind me I saw a Finn Come up There's probably about a foot and a half Out of the water and it's closing in on Vic it came up within a very short Period of time to about 10 or 15 feet Behind me I could see the girth it Wasn't just the fin it was stretched out A foot and a half on each side of the Fin This had been the largest shark I'd ever Seen Nearly half a mile offshore There's No Escape it came up within a foot or two Of me and that's when it it began I Tried to strike at it and scare it away And it was probably not the best move it

Started to get more agitated Change completely I was praying at that point Paddling I get bumps Shark can bump the back of the board I went down halfway into the water Held onto my board And rolled back onto the board Shouts to nearby Racers for help I'm yelling shark to them One of them veers towards me and he Yells to me it's on your tail Keep paddling I was completely terrified at that point The Good Samaritan is Joe Everett an Off-duty lifeguard I just kind of tried To hit the shark with the tip of my Board It worked shark went away There was this Eerie silence And then he came back And I believe that's when the real fight Happened Big strikes the shark with his paddle While Joe punches the Predator again and Again this happened for about five or Six minutes which seemed like eternity And then ultimately the shark went away Again And we did not see the shark at any Point after that After 20 terrifying minutes big shark Encounter is finally over we got to

Shore and just sat down I was in shock You go through an experience like that There's a moment of silence I think for Everyone when I gathered my thoughts and Such my daughter had come up to me and I I was just thankful that you know I had That opportunity to get back to my Daughter Vic emerges unscathed But not unaffected I had various Nightmares of encounters with sharks After that but I knew I needed to get Back into the water a few days after the Incident Vic returns to the ocean I felt That experience was one in a lifetime Event I knew it was something that was Going to change my perspective on things For a while So you can just see them cruising Through this area there goes a leopard Shark Dr Chris Lowe runs the shark Lab at California State University Long Beach There are about 22 species of sharks Found along California coasts ranging From species that hang right out off the Beach into lagoons to ones that live in The open ocean but the species that People interact with the most were the Ones found closest to the beach so those Include orange sharks they include Leopard sharks And of course the one that everybody Knows the great white

To identify the species behind Vic's Attack Dr Lowe turns to the paddle Boarders eyewitness account I could see the girth it wasn't just the Fin it was stretched out a foot and a Half on each side of the fin This had been the largest shark I'd ever Seen Based on his description of the shark it Sounds like it was potentially an adult White shark White sharks can get up to about 21.5 Feet long they're the largest predatory Fish on earth Historically white sharks are Responsible for more attacks off the Coast of Southern California and in fact More attacks around the world than any Other species of shark Investigators know what species carried Out the attack but they still don't know Why Vic has his own Theory I'm paddling I get bumped The shark can bump the back of the board It was curious and I believe it just Bumped me because it was inquisitive The history of Vic's favorite sport Seems to support this idea In 2007 paddle boarding was fairly rare At that particular point and you're Starting to see more individuals farther Out in the shoreline than you typically

Would Is curiosity the reason the shark bumped Vic's board Sharks are absolutely curious animals When there's new items in the Environment they tend to investigate That Dr Dan Huber of the University of Tampa Explores the theory When a white shark is cruising through The water it's looking up at the surface And what it sees is a silhouetted torso With limbs sticking off of it which Looks just like a Seal's body as the Sunlight is coming down and creating That silhouette If you add to that the fact that the Paddle border is making splashes in the Surface of the water as they're working Their way through the water that's also Going to draw the shark's attention into That spot Could a paddle board entice a shark into Taking a closer look or bite Is this the cause of the sudden increase In shark attacks Over the next three months three more Shark attacks rocked this Southern California coastline making four Incidents in total that's more than Occurred in the previous 25 years This shocking turn of events makes Headlines It was big news people are scared and

Rightly so the LA coastline is on alert And locals want answers for Encounters In one year between sharks and people Off the coast of Los Angeles is alarming We just don't see that very often In search of Clues investigators Discover a similarity between the Attacks all four encounters occurred Near the shoreline Dr Lowe and a team of student Researchers investigate the movements of Sharks in that particular area There was a state of incidents in a Location all within a short period of Time where a bunch of individuals were Bitten by sharks The number one thing we would want to Know is how many sharks are present in That area how much time are they Spending in that area are these just Individuals that are transient passing Through understanding both the number And distribution of sharks in this Region will help Dr glow determine if Humans are at greater risk of being Bitten we're gonna put a drone up and Try to find some clear water to put the Bro We really need to understand what these Animals are doing so we spy basically on These animals So these are baited remote underwater Video systems brovs for short We're going to drop the breath here and

Let it sit for a couple hours and let The cameras Roll come back and pick it Up see what we got [Music] It acts like a selfie station So we're even using cool new machine Learning algorithms to build libraries Of individuals that we can track over Time So we have all these receivers all these Individual white sharks are individuals That we detected in a five-day period The data reveals something alarming so You can see there are periods when They're working right along the edge of The beach this is where people are and Then other times of the day they're Outside but they're basically just going Back and forth along these areas Not only are sharks patrolling the Inshore area in large numbers they're Doing so dangerously close to humans There are 10 sharks in this Frame one Two three four five six seven Individuals right there there's some Surfers eight Nine ten That's probably an eight foot white Shark there's the wave break right there Why are sharks spending so much time Close to shore A chilling detail from one of the Attacks provides a new lead Back in 2007 I was actually surfing a

Couple times a week before work I would Surf with some of the guys that I worked With Andrew sanagra has an Abiding Love of The ocean and of its inhabitants I've Had plenty of encounters with sharks Where I've been swimming with them I've swam with them all over the world But in 2007 an unplanned shark encounter Turns Andrew's life upside down I never Would have thought in a million years That the day would have ended the way That it did I was meeting my friends at their condo Right up on the beach we were gonna surf In the morning after surfing we were Gonna go over to the Venice Street Fair There had been a heatwave earlier in the Month but when we came to the beach Everything seemed normal It's a Dale a lot like today actually it Was a little bit cooler out We had been in there for a while Catching a few waves and I noticed this Large Shadow come under my board from The left My boards roughly eight feet long and The shark was about the same size as my Board So I could see this was a large animal That passed directly below me We're like all right maybe it's time to Go in I look down and I can see that the shark

Is on the wave in between us The wave behind me crashed and knocked My feet out from underneath me so I kind Of got kicked back And that's where we made contact A shark sinks its teeth into Andrew's Foot It felt like I got hit with a large Rubber mallet Like someone took a mallet and swung it As hard as it can it was just a hard Strike that just hit me all of a sudden Just as quickly as it hit The shark is gone I didn't know if there was going to be a Second attack That's when I did become panicked and I Needed to get out of the water When I looked down and saw my foot At first there was nothing and then the All of a sudden the blood started Pouring out at the top of my foot and There was so much blood I still couldn't Tell how many puncture wounds there were What was actually happening yet A lifeguard bandages Andrew's wound and The next day the surfer seeks medical Attention The doctor on call at the time heard That there was a shark bite and so he Came down and he in fact confirmed that It looked like a classic bite wound the Chart tooth cut through the muscle in my Foot Andrew was on crutches for three

Weeks but it takes nearly a year for him To return to the water I definitely feel Lucky that the only thing that happened To my foot was the puncture wounds it Could have been a lot worse Andrew's incident occurs just two months After VIXX part of an unnerving string Of four shark attacks off the coast of Los Angeles It's an uptick that forces local Authorities to act There's been an increase in the number Of shark sightings which ultimately Makes it so the lifeguards will have to Shut an area of the beach down and Increase the number of Patrols What's causing this disturbing surge A clue from Andrew's attack could help Solve the mystery Dr Huber investigates Now an important detail here is that According to Andrew's account and also From the doctors who attended to him was That this wound was as deep as it is Wide across the surface which means that A pretty large tooth would have sunk Into it to cause a lot of damage It basically appeared like Andrew had Been stabbed in the foot and according To Dr Huber there's only one shark Capable of inflicting such a wound it Appears that a white shark was Responsible for the attack A white shark the same culprit

Identified in Vic's encounter But something makes this white shark Different My boards roughly eight feet long and The shark was about the same size as my Board Given that Andrew described the shark That attacked him as being about the Size of his surfboard roughly in the 8 To 10 foot range this would mean that Andrew was attacked by a juvenile white Shark juvenile white sharks tend to Spend time a bit closer to the coast Than do adult white sharks the reason For this goes back to an amazing element Of great white physiology White sharks have this really cool Characteristic called a counter current Heat exchanger it's an arrangement of Blood vessels inside their body that Helps them to retain body heat so that They can Elevate their body temperature Compared to the surrounding water turns Out that adult white sharks are better At doing this than juvenile white sharks So juvenile white sharks tend to spend More time in shallower warmer more Coastal Waters could the temperature of The water play a part in the attacks off The Los Angeles Coast in 2007. I've been living in Malibu for close to 35 years and you would go for years and Not hear about these particular Encounters with humans and great whites

What I've noticed now is that they seem To come in waves more in the summer Months Dr Andrew lysing of the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration Specializes in tracking sea surface Temperatures he dives into the data from The time of the spike and so you'll Notice during 2007 right around May is When this whole region starts to warm up And stays warm for most of the summer on Into the fall and this these Temperatures are up above six degrees Warmer than normal for this region the Whole thing would be classified as a Marine heat wave The Marine heat wave of 2007 saw sea Water more than six degrees above normal And it occurred in the exact same months As the attacks So the fact that there was warmer than Normal water temperatures in 2007 could Be a contributing factor to the spike in Attacks in Los Angeles Begin to come into Focus Investigators turned their attention to A different freak occurrence on these Shores one that poisoned a shark's prey And just might explain the attacks We rescue about three to five hundred Seals on sea lions a year Peter Wallerstein has spent 35 years working As a first responder to distressed Animals And in 2007 he Witnesses something

Unusual five sea lions a day were Getting bitten a popular prey item of White sharks sea lions are often seen Along Southern California Shores Including on the very day when Vic was Attacked At the beginning of the race starts at Zuma Beach and the race terminates at The Malibu Pier there's a lot of Different marine mammals out in the Water sealed sea lion in 2007 sea lions Begin washing up on the beaches In 2007 we saw domoic acid break out Which is really a horrible toxin it Affects your brain and does a lot of Damage The milk acid is a neurotoxin produced By a form of allergy that's somewhat Common off of the southern California Coast It's one of the most devastating things That happened in marine life in L.A County pelicans get it and whales get it And sea lions get it real bad too Could high levels of domoic acid play a Part in the spike There's a variety of factors that can Lead to increases in demoic acid Concentration including elevated water Temperature and nutrient pollution Things like fertilizers running off from The coast into those Waters that Combination of things basically feeds an Algal bloom and those algal blooms

Result in increased concentrations of Domoic acid in the water As smaller fish eat the algae and larger Animals eat the smaller fish the domoic Acid levels that are passed on increase Exponentially This can lead to devastating Consequences for marine life toward the Top of the food chain like seals and sea Lions now the reason for this is because Domoic acid causes a spike in the Activity of the central nervous system Neurons in the brain start firing much Much more rapidly and all of that excess Activity can cause things ranging from Seizures to memory loss Sea Lion's tragedy may be a great whites Opportunity Hey guys Dr Lauren Palmer of The Marine Mammal Care Center explores the Connection rescuing marine animals does Tell us something about the sharks That they're preying on what size and What time of year when how many so we Learn a lot about sharks by looking at The prey that they go after And what Dr Palmer has learned from her Work with poison pinnipeds is crucial to The investigation domoic acid almost Certainly makes seals and sea lions more Vulnerable to shark attacks the sea Lions can be very lethargic they can Actually have seizures repeatedly they Can fall into a coma they can die

Outright Normally pinnipeds are hunted almost Exclusively by adult great whites that's Because juveniles like the one that bit Andrew lacked the size and strength to Take down these marine mammals But that may not be the case if a Pinniped has been poisoned it's possible That in 2007 there were a lot more Juvenile white sharks preying on sick Sea lions that they could actually Capture But does demolic acid affect the shark's Nervous system the same way it doesn't Matter We don't know Could vulnerable prey have lured Juvenile white sharks close to shore Putting them in direct contact with the Victims of the 2007 Spike Dr Palmer examines the data Actually we don't see a correlation Between shark attacks and demoic acid Events thus far that could be because The animals don't make it to shore Domoic acid is not the cause of the Spike But one thing this Theory does show is That a white shark's movements are Impacted by those of their prey Perhaps a different food source is Central to understanding the spike Another attack holds a clue Venice Beach has always been kind of the

Mecca for surf and skate I began surfing when I was a kid Surfed pretty much every other day with My buddies one of Sam bendel's favorite Surf spots is near the Venice Pier I Always knew that there were sharks in The water up and down the Pacific coast I didn't really ever think twice about Them being here in Venice Beach Sam Hits the water Gone down pure lights have gone up the Moon is starting to rise a little bit so There was still enough to see we'd been Out for about an hour and was paddling Out to get up over the crest of a wave My left hand had gone into the water and All the way to the back of my stroke And something hit me And I pulled my hand up you can see that It was bleeding and I was like oh no Sharks I started like paddling frantically in With just Moonlight to guide him Sam Scrambles to shore I looked in my hand I Was like oh that's a lot of blood It was just three cash scratch marks That had a lot of blood going off of it Just like put a little bit of pressure On or like all right uh no more night Surfing Sam escaped Serious injury my hand Wasn't mangled I was thankful that it Wasn't any worse than it was but the Encounter leaves a lasting impression

Have I ever gone night surfing again the Answer to that is a strong nope Not trying to relive the memories of What I experienced but it won't stop me From continuing to surf Bitten off the coast of Los Angeles in Just over three months The surfer is unable to identify the Species of his attacker So could this latest encounter also be The work of the mighty great white Dr Lowe examines the evidence so looking At the photos it's really difficult to Tell especially from wounds that have Healed but small white sharks based on The size of the wounds that's a Possibility Four attacks likely all by great whites But what has changed to make the white Sharks near Los Angeles turn on people Another clue from Sam's encounter could Shed some light [Music] The Moon is starting to rise a little Bit so there was still enough to see The Moon The phases of this ethereal orb serve an Important role in nature The lunar cycle can have a large effect On marine life there are lots of cases Around the world of different marine Organisms reproducing synchronized to Full moons Dr Huber knows one such creature whose

Reproduction corresponds with the lunar Cycle It's Slender silver and found along the Coast of Southern California Running or small Bait fish that live Along the coast and on full moons during The summer they Beach themselves to Spawn and then they get washed out by Waves now what that means is that during Full moons along the southern California Coast sometimes there are large Collections of bait fish right up Against the coast and anytime there's a Large collection of bait fish that could Potentially bring in Predators an influx Of small fish like Grunion can lure in Medium fish In turn these medium fish attract even Larger animals like sharks And that puts these Predators right in The path of surfers like Sam Bendel So the question some people have posited Is that white sharks are attracted to Grunion spawn why not there are Thousands of fish at these spots That's a possibility but the fact that We've never found a Grunion in a white Shark's stomach probably suggests that There's no correlation between Grunion Spawning and the probability of sharks Biting people at those locations While great whites do Feast on Bait fish It seems Grunion are not on their menu This cyclical spawning does not explain

The surge in shark attacks Perhaps the presence of fish is Important in another way A detail from Sam's attack site Could turn the investigation on its head I started hattling frantically in ran up To the top of the pier and then looked Down and we could see two or three big Silhouettes We kind of all collectively in that Moment realized that there was wildlife In the ocean waiting to get their Evening meal Sam was surfing near the Venice Pier at The time of his attack The Venice Pier is a popular fishing Location where Anglers reel in mackerel Pacific Bonito Queen fish and sometimes larger sea life I got a call about a harbor seal that Was caught and so we went to the pier or See a guy reeling up as real and at the End of it is a harbor seal with a hook In his mouth it's a scenario that seems To be occurring more frequently there's Been an increase in fishing from Piers Off of the Los Angeles coast and this is Potentially problematic because large Animals can be hooked and brought closer To shore where people are using the Beach so this would have put a lot of Blood into the water which could have Drawn in other Predators so potentially Pier fishing is a way to increase the

Number of interactions between people And sharks According to Dr Lowe it's not just Hooked pinnipeds that might pique a Shark's interest and cause an attack Fishing piers may be problematic in Another way one of our focuses is really On the behavior of sharks in the ecology Why do they do what they do and of Course that's hard to do without looking At how they interact with people because We've become part of the ocean ecology So fishing has been going on off California beaches and Piers for over 100 years in fact many of our ocean Piers were built for that purpose But white sharks really weren't around And not create a number 100 years ago It's been their conservation recovery That has brought them back And now we have people fishing with new Kinds of gear these guys are using heavy Tackle big steel leader big hooks They're specifically targeting these Sharks Sharks are no different than all other Animals when that animal gets scared or Gets in a fight it gets an adrenaline Rush a push So a shark that's caught on a hook and Line for example it feels it's being Attacked and anything near it it may Attribute to its being attacked And this is kind of dangerous because

There are people swimming and surfing in These places So now you have an angry shark that is Fighting for its life to get off that Line and that shark is lashing out back And forth thinking that maybe this guy Is the thing that's trying to harm you The presence of fishing piers be at the Root of the Southern California Spike Perhaps the answer to the 2007 attacks May be found in analyzing another eerily Similar shock encounter that occurred Nearby in 2014. this is crazy to say This but I've been swimming consistently For 50 years Eve Robles has a deep passion for long Distance swimming but in 2014 a routine Swim near a fishing pier ends in Disaster and almost ends his life It was a bright sunny day that morning Weather was warm the water temperature Was warmer than normal my group of Swimmers and I we got up and started a Two-mile swim starting from Hermosa pure To Manhattan Pier Unbeknownst to Steve and his friends Fishermen on the Manhattan Beach Pier Have a large fish on the line A shark We're about 100 yards from finishing the Swim That's when I saw the shark underneath Me The shark breaks free of the fisherman's

Hook I saw it to be about an eight foot Shark and it surfaced right up in front Of me His head was out of the water and we're Staring at each other eye to eye And I said oh my God this thing's too Close This could be it this is my last moment And then it came in and bit me The shark locked in on my torso They had to fight My hands went up I grabbed its nose and I just kept pushing and pushing And once the shark released me I was able to swim a couple Strokes away From it on my back and right behind me About five Strokes behind was my other Swimmer friend I jump on top of them in a panic saying I got bit I got bit and then he looks Over and he sees just all kinds of blood Coming out of me I didn't know the extent of the damage I was really afraid that I might bleed Out A group of guys were carrying me up to The sand I was just screaming and Screaming as loud as I ever have [Music] I'm scared I might die Doctors use stitches to repair the Slashes on Steve's right side the shark Itself Get me right on my torso it started

Right on my my chest here one bite Grabbed all the way to the back And it held on for five seconds And I mean No harrowing Steve's attack may also be Revealing could a discovery from his Incident be the key to unlocking LA's 2007 Spike once and for all So we see from Steve's attack clear Evidence of the lower jaw and the upper Jaw of the white shark Dr Huber's bite analysis concludes that A great white is responsible for both The 2007 attacks and this 2014 encounter If the incidents share a common culprit Could they also share a common cause In the case of Steve's attack both Steve And the shark were victims that shark Had been hooked and was fighting for its Life for 40 minutes it was simply just Trying to get away Steve on the other hand just had a case Of bad luck he was swimming through the Water that that same shark was trying to Escape from Steve got attacked and the shark was Surely stressed out and so they both Lost in that situation Is proximity to fishing piers the same Reason for the 2007 Spike near Los Angeles Fishing from a pier can potentially Bring large dangerous animals into

Proximity with beachgoers who are simply Trying to enjoy the water but the fact Of the matter is that during the spike In Los Angeles in 2007 only one of the Four attacks involved fishing which Means that this type of fishing is not The Smoking Gun it's not the main factor In contributing to these attacks As investigators consider New Leads Surfer Sam Bendel proposes his own Hypothesis I don't blame the shark Biting me I think he may have mistaken Me for a seal or another piece of Wildlife that was prey to him [Music] [Applause] Same idea investigators considered Earlier in the wake of Vic Calandra's Attack the majority of white shark Attacks occur on Surfers and the reason For that is because the silhouette of a Surfboard and the surfer's body coming Off of that board looked just like the Preferred prey type of white sharks Which are things like seals and sea Lions Three of the four victims in 2007 were On surfboards or paddle boards when Attacked could mistaken identity be the Cause of the LA Spike [Music] Local drone photographer Carlos gowna Has striking Visual Evidence that could Answer this question I lived in Malibu

In 2007 I was well aware of the amount Of shark encounters because a lot of my Friends are Surfers and so I remember Quite vividly people come in and telling Me look I was surfing today I saw a Breach we've got a paddle boarder going Straight at a shark the shark is going Straight at the paddle border both of Them meet the only one to react Is actually the shark In this footage the shark swims away From the paddleboard rather than Investigating it as prey contradicting The idea of mistaken identity And according to Dr Lowe this is the Behavior he'd expect to see Struggle with this Theory and the reason Is is these animals take down some of The most Nimble highly social adapted Animals for swimming in the ocean marine Mammals to say that they can't tell the Difference between a silhouette of a Board that makes a different sound Exhibits no similar odor Just doesn't seem right to me sharks Mistaking Surfers and paddle boarders For pinnipeds is not behind the 2007 Spike Perhaps there's another aspect of the Marine mammals Behavior to explore sea Lions breed during the summer months on Islands off the coast of Southern California so in those summer months and Into the fall there's an elevated number

Of potential prey items for white sharks Marine mammals have been a conservation Success story in the United States over The course of the last 40 years as it Turns out despite in the tax off of Los Angeles in 2007 coincided with the Reproductive time of the seals and sea Lions that live there so while seal and Sea lion populations in general are Increasing they happen to be Particularly High during the summer to Early fall months off the coast of Southern California and this is exactly When the spike in attacks occur Could an increase in sea lions have Drawn white sharks closer to shore Dr Lowe believes the answer to this Question lies in analyzing a great Whites diet To do so his research team examines a Surprising aspect of the Predator's Anatomy its skin this is our biopsy Punch and we use this to take tissue Samples from sharks and to do a stable Eye stops analysis did you get tissue Yeah We did tissue samples because you know The old saying you are what you eat That's one way we can try to figure out What white tricks you're eating without Having to cut them open and see what's In their stomachs so with the tissue Sample I dry it and I crush it in the Lab make it powder so you can go through

A machine to get that stable isotope Signature Alrighty I'm gonna scoop it now then Looking at two stable eye step Signatures carbon and nitrogen and what These signatures tell you might be of Like what type of food discharge is Eating what they discover could upend Certain beliefs about a white shark's Diet and may also solve the 2007 Spike So we know that white sharks will Definitely feed on sea lions it's not a Fave northern elephant seal the fave Harbor seals pretty good California sealant we'll eat them if we Have to This preference between pinnipeds may be Integral to the investigation as Research from Dr Lowe's team suggests That although there are more sea lions In the water sharks are surprisingly not Eating more of them It's not that there's more sea lions There's also more elephant seals and if White sharks prefer to eat those why Wouldn't they a pinniped population boom Is not to blame As investigators go back to the drawing Board a shared detail between all of the Attacks emerges There had been a heatwave earlier in the Month I believe encounters with humans And great whites I think it comes in Certain ways it seems to be more in the

Summer months The investigation already revealed that LA's 2007 shark attacks occurred between June and early October coinciding with a Marine heat wave But what about Steve roblay's attack in 2014 2014 was an unusual year the water Was warmer than normal We were seeing unusually high water Temperatures Dr Andrew lysing checks to see if the Data supports Steve's observation So in the beginning of July 2014 we had This set up where we had extremely warm Waters throughout the bite and more to The South and these are still warm They're off my chart here there's Something like seven or eight degrees Above normal a massive Marine Heat Wave Here Dr leising confirms water Temperatures are unusually high around The la coast in both 2007 and 2014. the Reason is because of the wind patterns In the region the winds are actually Going off this direction instead of Along the coast and they're much weaker Than normal so you're not going to get Much Coastal upwelling and mixing of Those surface waters so it's not going To cool down instead it can just kind of Keep on heating up right in the surface There's other result of a complex Weather event called an El Nino El ninos Are warmer La Nina's are cooler they're

Normal and then there's 2014. Bring it was one of the strongest El Ninos we've had and it collided with The Blob in the Pacific Northwest The Blob Is an unusual mass of warm water that Was first detected in late 2013. Oceanographers have not seen that even In climate records going back 10 000 Years But how does this warmer water affect Sharks what I'm seeing from 2007 was There was this fairly warm pool of water That got closer and closer to the shore Than the animals also are sort of Smudged down into a smaller region so Basically you would have the same number Of animals but crunched into a smaller Area our wind drop down and we have Warmer water along the beaches which Many of the juvenile white sharks are Seeking out that means we are putting Lots of people that recreate in our Coastal ocean in close proximity to Sharks proximity Is Everything A viable theory for the 2007 Spike Emerges Higher than normal water temperatures Bring sharks closer to shore leading to Increased interactions with humans Whenever we see a spike in shark attacks We tend to try to look for a single Smoking Gun but the fact of the matter Is that nature Works in complex systems And there often isn't a single causative

Factor what we know is that there was Elevated water temperatures so now we've Got more prey in the water which could Be drawing white sharks closer to the Shore to hunt on these animals and Potentially leading to an increase in The number of attacks and this whole Situation likely brought white sharks Into proximity with beachgoers off of Los Angeles in 2007. With the mystery solved La residents and The survivors of the 2007 attacks can Breathe the sigh of relief I actually Grew a deep respect for great white Sharks if I was paddle boarding again And ran into this situation again I Think I would have a completely Different reaction I don't believe I'd Strike at it I think my reaction caused The shark to pursue me more so I think On a go forward basis I'd be more of Observation mode and leave it at that See where it rolls Shocking warming Trends around the la Coast are also happening worldwide which Means shark and human encounters could Continue to rise I think people are Scared of sharks mostly because they're Not around them very often and when they Do have encounters people think of the Worst type of encounter I think sharks Can be aggressive but I think that is Few and far between and those are the Only incidents that people remember

I wouldn't let anybody tell you oh Surfing's dangerous you're going to get Eaten by a shark don't don't fall for That it's it's amazing the rewards far Outweigh the little nips [Music] [Music]