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‘Aggressive’ shark closes La Jolla beach

Hammerhead circled swimmers, kayakers near La Jolla Shores

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UPDATE: Second hammerhead spotted off La Jolla Shores

A hammerhead shark that circled and followed a group of swimmers and kayakers near La Jolla Shores prompted lifeguards to close a stretch of water to thousands of beachgoers Saturday afternoon.

The 1 p.m. closure between La Jolla Cove and Scripps Pier is expected to last until 8 a.m. today, when swimmers will be warned that they enter at their own risk, lifeguards said.

Acknowledging the extreme heat that sent swarms of people to the popular beaches, lifeguards said they were allowing people to wade in the ocean up to their knees, but not go past the surf during the closure.

Hammerhead shark off La Jolla

No one was injured by the shark, reported to be 8 to 10 feet long.

The shark was reportedly showing “aggressive behavior” toward a group of four swimmers, who scrambled aboard nearby kayaks, said San Diego Fire-Rescue spokesman Lee Swanson. The shark then followed the kayaks toward shore, as far as the surfline. It was last seen just past the surf near Avenida de la Playa.

A 36-year-old San Marcos man, who was fishing with his father in their kayaks, shot cellphone video of the hammerhead circling their crafts.

“We each caught a yellowfin, and we always bleed them out to keep them fresher,” said Jimmy Van Evera, who estimated they’d fished for three hours. “We were paddling back in and we saw this hammerhead pop up near our kayaks.”

It was about 10 yards away, but ventured closer and closer.

La Jolla Cove was closed to swimmers and kayakers after a reported sighting of a hammerhead shark on Saturday. — K.C. Alfred
La Jolla Cove was closed to swimmers and kayakers after a reported sighting of a hammerhead shark on Saturday. — K.C. Alfred
(K.C. Alfred)

“We could tell he was looking for something to eat. It bit at the bottom of our kayaks. That’s where the fish scent was,” Van Evera said.

Van Evera, who works in online eduction, shot video, called his wife, and watched the hammerhead with his father for 30 minutes to an hour.

“We noticed it was pretty big,” he said. “It wasn’t really scary. It was just fun to see it, how big and how beautiful it was.”

He said they alerted nearby swimmers to the shark, and one party of about four men and women in their 20s became frightened. “One girl was yelling for help,” he said. “She was freaked out.”

The four got rides to shore on other kayakers’ crafts. Van Evera estimated there were 50 to 100 people, mostly tourists, in kayaks at the time and some headed toward the shark to view it.

Van Evera said when he learned that lifeguards closed the beach because of the sighting, “I was kind of sad, actually. I think it was following us just because of the fish scent.”

Lifeguards, as well as a marine biologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, reviewed Van Evera’s video and verified the shark’s size and type, officials said.

The biologist, Andy Nosal, confirmed the beach closure was the appropriate course of action, officials said.

A helicopter and lifeguard boats searched the area for the hammerhead. There were no further reported sightings.

It’s odd to see a hammerhead so close to shore in San Diego, said lifeguard Lt. Andy Lerum. He said they are commonly found in the warm waters off southern Baja California, but the ocean at La Jolla on Saturday was an unusually warm 74 to 75 degrees.

Two weeks ago, a hammerhead bit a diver’s hand about 100 miles off San Diego’s coast.

Lerum said it took quite a while to notify all of the thousands of people at La Jolla Shores that they should stay out of the surf. Then, he said, people who arrived after the warnings were issued “didn’t know any better and went in, and we had to warn them to come out.”

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