by Kevin Cody
Over 20 juvenile sharks, six- to eight-feet in length, were caught by fishermen on the Hermosa Beach Pier on Saturday, April 11.
La Playita restaurant owner Harold Cohen said he saw the fishermen catch and release five sharks in the span of an hour during a break he took on the pier about noon on Saturday.
The fishermen told him they had hooked over 20 sharks since arriving at the pier at 6 a.m. They said they used whole mackerel as bait on one ought (1.5 inch) hooks, commonly used to catch small sharks.
If the sharks did not shake free of the hooks, the fishermen said, they cut the lines after reeling the sharks to the surface. Reeling in the sharks commonly took 10 to 15 minutes of racing the length of the pier railings. The fishermen kept the sharks outside of the surfline to keep them away from bathers.
The fishermen said they believed the sharks they hooked were Makos, which are legal to catch.
But Keith Poe, a nationally recognized expert on Great White and Mako sharks, said the shark in the photos taken by Easy Reader is a Great White, which are illegal to catch.
He said Great Whites and Makos can be distinguished by their fins. The trailing edge of a Great White’s dorsal (back) fin is serrated. A Mako’s dorsal fin is smooth. The Great White’s pectoral fins (side fins) are black. A Mako’s pectoral fins are white, Poe said.
Poe noted it is unlikely the fishermen were hooking the same sharks multiple times because sharks flee when endangered.
Hermosa Beach pier shark fishing video by Harold Cohen.
Great White juveniles are common near the shoreline, Poe said, because they eat halibut, stingrays and skates, which frequent shallow waters. Poe added it is unusual for Makos, who chase fast swimming fish, to be close to shore.
“If people are getting stung by rays, chances are juvenile Great Whites are in the vicinity,” Poe mentioned.
Juvenile Great Whites pose little threat to swimmers and surfers, experts say. Not until they reach over 10 feet do they have the jaw strength to attack sea lions, seals and other mammals.
Cohen, who regularly swims out front of his restaurant, just north of the pier, said he takes some comfort in knowing he’s swimming with baby Great Whites.
“I don’t have to worry as much about getting stung by rays if the Great Whites are eating them,” he said.
The ‘Shark Tagger’
Great White juveniles seen in the Santa Monica Bay travel south from the Great White nursery off of Point Conception, Poe said. Poe is credited with discovering a second Point Conception nursery in 2014, north of Point Conception, known as the Point Conception Tribe.
Previously, the only known Great White nurseries on the West Coast were near the Farallon Islands, off of San Francisco; South of Point Conception to San Diego; and near the Guadalupe Islands, 160 miles off of Baja California.
Poe said California’s Great White Shark population, estimated at 2,000 to 3,000, has been on the rebound since they received State protection in 1994. Great Whites are also federally protected under a 2012 law.
Poe has tagged an estimated 5,000 Great White and Mako sharks over the past three decades with transmitters that enable marine scientists to track the sharks’ movements. The Lomita building contractor and his Bergstran 31 fishing boat, “Shark Tagger,” appear regularly on the National Geographic Channel, and on Discovery’s “Shark Week.”
Last October, off Point Conception, Poe tagged six female Great White Sharks, ranging in size from 16- to 18-feet, and ranging in age from 50- to 70-years-old. Scientists at the Marine Conservation Science Institute (Marine CSI) in Fallbrook, are tracking the sharks to learn their migratory patterns. The six have been named Lena (16-feet), Kara (16-feet), Teresa (16-feet), Delores (17-feet), Primo (17-feet) and Alyssa (18-feet, the largest shark ever tagged.)
The public can follow the travels of Kara, Alyssa and Poe Girl at MarineCSI.org/2010/06/01/expedition-white-shark/
Hermosa pier policy
The Hermosa Beach pier gained national attention two weeks ago, on April Fools Day, when a Hermosa Pier fisherman, Kevin Phan, and a friend hooked a six-foot Great White, and reeled it in to the beach on the north side of the pier. Phan then raced from the pier to the beach, where he cut his fishing line, and pushed the beached shark back out to sea. A video of Phan’s bare-handed rescue went viral on social media and was reported in the national press.
Hermosa Beach does not prohibit shark fishing from its pier, except for the protected Great Whites. Nor does Redondo Beach prohibit shark fishing from its piers.
Manhattan Beach effectively prohibits shark fishing by prohibiting hooks more than two inches wide, and fishing line greater than 40 pound test. Manhattan passed its ban on shark gear in August 2014 after a swimmer, training for the Dwight Crum International Surf Festival Pier to Pier Swim, was bitten by a shark trying to shake a hook cast by a fisherman on the Manhattan Beach Pier. ER
Before last week we’d never seen anyone catch a shark at the Hermosa pier. Then after that initial catch it’s apparently been a “thing” to come to Hermosa and catch a shark. Do we need Fish & Wildlife to come stake out the pier and end this illegal and potentially dangerous practice? We surf, swim and paddle next to the pier and Redondo High practices there three times a week. Even other anglers on the pier are concerned. Hermosa shouldn’t be known as the place to catch sharks.
Is it comforting to know that 6-9 foot sharks don’t usually attack adults?