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My money’s on Bull Sharks. Those things are scary.

Related Stories

• Shark attack: Lifeguard hailed as a hero in rescue attempt
• Florida shark attack a Great White?

Scientists have not yet conclusively identified the species of shark responsible for a fatal attack on a kite surfer off a Stuart, Fla., beach, but they have ruled out any involvement by a great white shark.

Some media reports speculated that a group of white sharks might have attacked the kiteboarder on Wednesday. Florida-based shark experts say the reports were based on an apparent misquote and media hype.

“Our investigation definitively indicates it was not a great white shark,” George Burgess, director of shark research at the Florida Museum of Natural History, said on Friday.

Instead, he said, an examination of the victim’s wounds suggests that the attacking shark was eight to nine feet long and was more than likely a bull shark or tiger shark.

He said that although the lifeguard who attempted to rescue the kiteboarder saw several sharks nearby, only one shark bit the man. According to officials, there was a very deep and fatal bite to his thigh, a second bite to his buttocks, and a defensive wound to his hand.

Most shark attacks are hit-and-run

Most Florida shark bites are quick nips, like a hit-and-run, experts say. This attack was different.

“The attacking shark really meant business. This was not likely to be a mistaken-identity situation,” Mr. Burgess said. “This was a shark that was attacking with some real meaning.”

Although Burgess was able to narrow the range of potential species involved in the attack, officials have made arrangements to consult a second shark-bite expert to help solve the mystery.

Grant Gilbert, a research scientist in Vero Beach, says he will meet on Monday with the Martin County medical examiner to try to match the victim’s wounds with an extensive inventory of shark jaws. It is a kind of forensic shark-bite version of “CSI.”

“Sharks can be identified by their dentition [teeth],” he says.

A tiger shark has saw-edged teeth on both its upper and lower jaws. In contrast, a bull shark has pointed teeth on its lower jaw and triangular, serrated teeth on the upper jaw.

The pointed teeth are designed to hold prey, while the upper teeth are built for cutting. According to Gilbert, puncture wounds produced by the lower jaw would be present in a bite from a bull shark, but not from a tiger shark.

Forensic evidence focuses on bite marks

But that may not end the inquiry, he says. Two other sharks, the dusky shark and the silky shark, share similar jaw configurations with the bull shark. At that point, Gilbert says, the sharks may be differentiated by the number of teeth in the upper and lower jaws. Much depends on the evidence from the bites, he says.

In 1998, a 9-year-old boy was killed by a shark near Vero Beach. Gilbert worked on that case as well. The two main suspects, he said, were a bull shark and a tiger shark.

The bite characteristics allowed officials to rule out the bull shark. They concluded the attack was caused by a tiger shark.

Tiger sharks prey on sea turtles, and their jaws are evolved to the task, Gilbert said. “It was a young tiger shark, and it thought it had a sea turtle,” he said, of the Vero Beach attack 12 years ago.

Migrating sharks not probably involved

Televised reports about the Stuart shark attack have included stock footage of sharks migrating up Florida’s east coast, Gilbert says. But those migrating sharks, the research scientist says, are probably too small and unlikely to be involved in an attack like the one Wednesday.

Gilbert says he suspects that the kite surfer plunged into the water at exactly the worst place. “It is possible that he actually fell on the shark,” he said. “If there were a number of sharks out there, it could be that he just fell at the wrong spot at the wrong time.” The researcher added, “We’ll never know.”

There have only been 28 recorded shark bites in Martin County since 1882, says Mark Perry, director of the Florida Oceanographic Society in Stuart. This week’s attack was the first fatality in the county.

The victim, Stephen Schafer, was well known in Stuart, said Mr. Perry, whose office is across the street from Stuart Beach, where the attack took place.

A memorial ceremony is set for Saturday at Stuart Beach, where Mr. Schafer’s friends will hold a barbecue and a “paddle out,” in which surfers paddle offshore and form a large circle in remembrance.

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STUART — The research scientist who matched tiger shark teeth to bite wounds during an autopsy of the Treasure Coast’s only other shark fatality says young great white sharks — the fish of Jaws notoriety — are among suspects in Wednesday’s fatal attack off Stuart’s coast.

A 38-year-old kiteboard surfer, Stephen Howard Schafer, 38, of Stuart was attacked by sharks Wednesday afternoon and died from his injuries, according to the Martin County Sheriff’s Office.

The scientist, Grant Gilmore, said the size and type of shark in Wednesday’s attack can be learned the same way it was in the 1998 death of 9-year-old James Willie Tellasmon north of Jaycee Park in Vero Beach: By comparing characteristic bite patterns from among many species that live or visit off the Treasure Coast to wounds.

“It can be done,” Gilmore said. “It would be nice to have closure on this, to know what it was, especially since the man, tragically, died.”

Great whites prefer colder northern Atlantic Ocean waters and aren’t usually thought of as a Florida shark. But smaller 6- to 8-foot ones migrate to Florida’s east coast during winter.

Of the many types of sharks off the Treasure Coast, three of the four species known to attack humans — great hammerheads, bulls and tigers — prefer warm water. They leave the area or go deep in winter.

“The only other species that gathers in abundance out there in the winter are the juvenile great white sharks,” Gilmore said. They eat their way through a migrating parade of 3- to 4-foot sharpnose sharks that travel south from New England waters to Florida.

Cooler ocean water usually keeps great whites north of Cape Canaveral, Gilmore said, but this winter has been unusually cold.

Gilmore said it is very unusual to have a person bitten by a shark off Florida’s east coast this time of year. With only early news accounts for information, he wouldn’t guess which species was involved in Wednesday’s attack.

Doctoral work done by Jon Dodrill documented fishermen catching great whites off Florida’s east coast between Cape Canaveral and Daytona Beach. Gilmore was Dodrill’s professor when Dodrill did the census in the mid-1970s that is still considered an authoratative source for which sharks live and travel off Florida’s east coast.

Today, Dodrill runs Florida’s artificial reefs program.

The attack on James in 1998 happened in shallow water and was attributed to a young tiger shark about six feet long.

It was Martin County’s first fatal shark attack, according to records going back to 1882.

About 4 p.m. Wednesday, a lifeguard was looking through his binoculars and saw Schafer, the kiteboard surfer, in distress about a quarter of a mile off shore from an unguarded beach just south of Stuart Beach, officials said.

When the lifeguard paddled out to Schafer, he was encircled by sharks, officials said.

The lifeguard put Schafer on his rescue board and paddled to shore where Schafer said he had been bitten by a shark, authorities said. Officials performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the victim, who had multiple bite wounds, and he was rushed to Martin Memorial North Medical Center, where he later died.

Schafer’s friends said they are shocked by his death.

“I’ve never heard of multiple sharks in this area surrounding someone and fatally wounding him,” said the victim’s childhood friend, Teague Taylor, 36. “He was the nicest person ever.”

Normally, sharks appear in the area to feast on bait fish migrating to the area.

Taylor said he was surprised to see the sharks because they normally come around the spring. On Tuesday, the day before the fatal attack, Taylor said he was surfing near where his friend was attacked and he saw several sharks.

“You always think in the back of your mind that they (sharks) are out there,” he said.

Jordan Schwartz, who has known Schafer for five years, said he was a very experienced kiteboard surfer.

“He was a super nice guy. Always mellow. I don’t think he had any enemies,” he said.

Including Wednesday’s fatal attack, there have been about 14 deaths in Florida attributed to sharks, according to records provided by University of Florida Museum of Natural History.

REDUCING RISK OF SHARK ATTACKS

Always stay in groups; sharks are more likely to attack a lone person.

Do not wander too far from shore — this isolates an individual and additionally places one far away from assistance.

Avoid being in the water during darkness or twilight hours when sharks are most active and have a competitive sensory advantage.

Do not enter the water if bleeding or if menstruating — a shark’s olfactory ability is acute, and sharks are attracted to blood.

Do not wear shiny jewelry because the reflected light resembles the sheen of fish scales.

Use extra caution when waters are murky and avoid uneven tanning and bright-colored clothing — sharks see contrast particularly well.

Refrain from excess splashing, and do not allow pets in the water because of their erratic movements.

The International Shark Attack File Web site, University of Florida Museum of Natural History, www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Sharks/ISAF/ISAF.htm

TREASURE COAST SHARK ATTACKS

Indian River County: 17 (one fatal, 1998)

St. Lucie County: 29 (none fatal)

Martin County: 28 (one fatal, 2010)

Source: International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida Museum of Natural History and media reports

SHARK ENCOUNTER OCCURRENCES

Attacks are most common in Central Florida. Here’s a look at unprovoked attacks in the state from 1882 to 2008.

231:Volusia

96: Brevard

58: Palm Beach

28: Martin

29: St. Lucie

17: Indian River

11: Broward

10: Dade

19: Florida Keys

Source: International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida Museum of National History.

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Fiddling with his swimming goggles as he strolled across one of Cape Town’s most popular beaches, Lloyd Skinner did not notice anything amiss.

With temperatures in the 90s, the sand was packed with families enjoying the delights of the South African summer.

The sea appeared calm – perfect to escape the heat. But as he waded out, something terrible started to happen. A strange ripple effect circled him in the water. On the beach, people started waving their towels and shouting at him desperately.

It was too late. A great white shark struck 37-year-old Skinner with devastating force. The world’s deadliest coldblooded predator then turned and, amid thrashing water, pulled its human prey under the waves.

Astonishingly, all was not lost. An endurance runner and fitness fanatic, Skinner somehow managed to struggle to the surface as the sea turned red around him.

He disappeared again moments later. The shark simply circled and struck again, knocking the man into the air before pulling him under once more. He has not been seen since.

This was no ordinary shark attack. The beast was simply enormous – indeed, one eye witness described the animal as being the size of a ‘dinosaur or bus’. And chillingly, some experts believe the deadly predator, hungry for meat, could have been tempted to shore by humans themselves. It may be that it is we, not the Great White, who are at fault for this horrific attack.

Despite lifeguards’ best efforts, Mr Skinner was doomed. With Cape Town’s beaches packed because of a heatwave, lifeguards raced into the water. ‘I was shouting “Shark! Shark!” ‘ one said last night. ‘These bathers were about 15 metres away and could not see what was happening. Then it was over. There was this pool of blood in the water.’

Using its unique ability to detect the tiny electrical pulse emitted by a human heart, this fearsome creature – estimated to weigh more than five tonnes – had attacked the tourist, striking from beneath at up to 25mph.

Watching from his holiday home overlooking the beach, Gregg Coppen was horrified. ‘Holy s***! We just saw a gigantic shark eat what looked like a person in front of our house! That shark was huge! Like dinosaur huge!’

He added: ‘It was this giant shadow. . . it sort of came out of the water and took this colourful lump and went off with it. You could see its whole jaw wrap around the thing – which turned out to be a person.’

Horrified British visitors also saw the carnage unfold at Fish Hoek, a popular tourist resort 30 minutes outside Cape Town, a premier destination for Britons keen to escape freezing temperatures at home.

‘We saw the shark come back twice,’ said Phyllis McCartain from Arundel in Sussex. ‘It had the man’s body in its mouth and his arm was in the air. Then the sea was full of blood.’

Denis Lundon, her holiday companion, watched as the swimmer was thrust out of the water by the shark’s strike. ‘I jumped, waved my hat and roared and screamed at swimmers to get out of the water,’ he said. ‘I never want to experience this again. I’m going to block it out of my mind.’

Kyle Johnston, another tourist, said: ‘We were at about chest depth and he was deeper. We saw people waving towels at us, then we looked further out to sea and saw what looked like blood, and a man’s leg come up.’

An engineer from Zimbabwe who ran mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Skinner was on holiday in South Africa to attend the wedding of his partner’s daughter, who was on the beach as the horror unfolded.

As the police helicopters scoured the area yesterday, and beaches remained closed, a coastguard-spokesman said: ‘Whether we find body parts . . . it’s very unlikely. The possibility of the body being completely consumed is being considered. We think the shark took everything.’

By last night, only the tourist’s goggles had been recovered. Shark spotters were desperate to locate the Great White responsible. Because sharks are territorial creatures, experts say a beast this size is likely to return again and again to the same spot where prey is known to live.

Ever since the Steven Spielberg film Jaws, this lethal predator has been reviled and feared.

But many believe humans, not the Great White, should be blamed for this horrific death, the latest in a string along South Africa’s coastline, which has one of the largest Great White populations in the world.

Indeed, seas around Cape Town teem with these creatures. Despite their fearsome reputation as a so-called apex predator, with only humans higher in nature’s hierarchy, Great Whites seldom attack humans. They feed instead on seals, dolphins and large fish such as tuna.

But now the tables are being turned – and humans are being hunted. With no reported attacks for decades, up to three fatal attacks – as well as countless lesser incidents – are now being reported each year.

Many believe this is due to the greedy, irresponsible actions of dozens of tour operators, which have sprung up along a place known locally as ’shark alley’, offering tourists the chance to ’swim’ with these monsters of the deep.

Touting for business at tourist spots such as Cape Town waterfront, they charge tourists £100 a time to be taken out by boat, placed in a cage and lowered into the water, hoping for the Great White shark of Jaws legend to circle.

The methods used to entice the sharks to the paying tourists are being blamed for turning these Great Whites into man-eaters.

Environmentalists and surfers blame these tourist boats for ‘chumming’: dropping bloody bait, such as meat and rotting fish, into the sea to lure sharks towards the tourists.

Surfers and swimmers say this pungent bait drifts all over the sea, luring sharks dangerously close to the shore. They say chumming is behind the upsurge in lethal attacks.

Craig Bovim, a marine engineer who survived a shark attack, has set up a group to lobby for cage diving to be banned, saying the presence of people in the shark’s habitat was creating a familiarity between the two species – with deadly results.

‘We should stop this craze,’ he says. ‘Baiting of leopards and lions is no longer allowed. We should not do it to sharks. They are magnificent animals.’

Adrian Charles, another surfer, said: ‘Sharks are intelligent creatures and they learn to associate human beings with food. They follow the boats into the harbour when in the past they wouldn’t come all the way in.’

The remarkable proliferation of these sharks around Fish Hoek, where the Atlantic first touches the Indian Ocean on the eastern side of Cape Town known as False Bay, has also brought an influx of wildlife photographers and film crews.

Their methods, according to locals, are also making these sharks associate humans with food. With cameras rolling, many film crews tow dead seals behind their boats in the hope that a Great White will leap out of the water and attack.

Even Peter Benchley – whose book inspired Jaws the movie, sealing the reputation of the killer Great White – campaigned in the decade before his death to save sharks, more than 100 million of which are killed by humans each year for soup and as a by-product of industrial netting.

So big is the threat to their future – and they are a vital part of the ocean’s eco-system – that many species, including the Great White, have been designated as endangered.

But with beaches last night still closed amid the Cape Town heatwave, and spotters buzzing the sea in helicopters, some people were already going back into the water.

Incredibly, lifeguards had to chase several people from the sea where this week’s fatal attack happened.

So is cage diving to blame for the latest death? Hard to say – but this dreadful attack did, at least, give an insight into the relative intelligence of humans and Great White sharks, regarded by scientists as the number one and number two predators on the planet.

In the water, however, the shark always wins.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1243355/As-swimmer-eaten-alive-Great-White-chilling-evidence-humans-blame-Have-turned-sharks-maneaters.html#ixzz0dEzcRVBH

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Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) — A 37-year-old Zimbabwean tourist died after being attacked by a shark while swimming off Cape Town’s Fish Hoek beach today, South Africa’s National Sea Rescue Institute said.

“There were plenty of eyewitnesses” to the attack, Ian Klopper, an official with the institute, said in a telephone interview from the city. “There is no chance of survival.”

The attack took place shortly before 4 p.m. local time, he said. A helicopter and four boats were used to search for the victim’s remains. It is unclear what type of shark attacked the man, Mark Dotchin, chairman of the Western Cape province’s lifesaving association, said in a telephone interview.

“As of now, no body has been found,” Dotchin said. “There was a lot of blood in the water.”

Great White Sharks, which can grow to 6 meters (19.7 feet) in length and weigh 3 metric tons (6,614 pounds), have been responsible for most of the attacks that have taken place off Cape Town’s beaches in the past.

The Zimbabwean was swimming about 20 meters offshore when he was attacked,Talk Radio 702, a Johannesburg-based broadcaster, reported. His wife witnessed the incident and is receiving trauma counseling, it said.

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Cape Town – The NSRI has confirmed that a swimmer has been the victim of a shark attack at Fish Hoek beach near Cape Town.

Ian Klopper of the NSRI told News24 that an intensive search was underway to locate the swimmer, but had so far yielded nothing.

“A white male, between 32 and 38 years old has been taken by a shark and we have not been able to locate the patient,” Klopper said. The identity of the victim is still unknown.

Twitter users also confirmed the attack.

“Holy shit, we just saw a GIGANTIC shark eat what looked like a person right in front of our house in fishhoek. Unbelievable,” wrote skabenga.

Bathers have been warned by Cape Town Disaster management to be on the lookout for great white sharks which traditionally cruise this stretch of the coast at this time of year.

“The appearance of white sharks is normal during peak summer months in Cape Town near in-shore areas, as these sharks are known to hunt and feed along this stretch of coastline at this time of year,” spokesperson Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said on Tuesday.

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VETERAN surfer Russell Specht has survived a terrifying face-to-face encounter with a monster great white shark stalking North Stradbroke Island.

The 52-year-old surfer, local lifesavers and island boardriders fear the huge man-eater was responsible for the horrifying shark-on-shark attack off the island, east of Brisbane, which The Sunday Mail featured in graphic photographs in late October.

The smaller 3m white pointer, snared on a baited drumline set off North Stradbroke’s busy Cylinder Beach, was almost bitten in half by the bigger shark.

Mr Specht, who has surfed for more than four decades on the island, said he and fellow surfers who were used to swimming with sharks had switched to predator alert.

“It was frightening. It was like a submarine heading towards me. I didn’t expect to live,” Mr Specht said.

He and several mates were surfing more than 100m off Main Beach when a younger boardrider shouted to them about the approaching monster.

“This thing came at me from behind. The other four guys with me, they took off to the beach and left me,” Mr Specht said.

“My first instinct was to paddle out to sea. Then I thought that this is not right, this is exactly what he wants me to do.”

Mr Specht bravely chose to sit quietly on his board and “eyeball” the shark – at least 4m long – as it came close enough to touch.

“He veered off, then he did a U-turn 10m away from me.

“I’m on a six foot three inch board. I’m thinking if he’s going to have a go at me he will eat me. But I thought you’re going to have to eat this board first,” Mr Specht said.

The champion surfer and Point Lookout Boardriders Club life member sat motionless on the board as the shark went directly under him, just 1m below, on its second pass.

Fellow surfers believe the same shark was hooked on a drum line off the beach later that day. The drumline “exploded” as the great white managed to free itself.

After spotting between 10 and 15 sharks off Main Beach in the past week, Mr Specht said he and other surfers were taking extra precautions and not surfing alone.

He said it was important to report his encounter just three weeks ago to warn holidaymakers that a dangerous great white shark was in local waters.

Surf Life Saving Queensland Gold Coast services co-ordinator Stuart Hogben, who has been on recent flights by the Westpac helicopter to North Stradbroke Island, supports Mr Specht’s suspicions about the great white being responsible for the attack on the other shark.

Mr Hogben saw several 2-3m sharks about 200-300m offshore along the island’s surf side during a flight last weekend. Other sightings were made off the Gold Coast.

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GOLD Coast surfer Nigel Hughes escaped from a shark attack in known Great White territory near Evans Head with nothing but an injured big toe.

Mr Hughes was bitten by the shark while surfing at Coffee Rock, north of Evans Head, at 7am on Sunday.

The 39-year-old deputy principal of Palm Beach-Currumbin State High School was holidaying in Evans Head with friends and decided to head out with them for an early morning surf.

Just as he was pushing himself up to stand on his board he felt the shark strike.

“I looked back to see if my foot was there,” said Mr Hughes, speaking from the Lismore Base Hospital where he was waiting last night to have surgery on his foot.

The shark sliced through Mr Hughes’ big toe which was left partly hanging from his foot.

After the attack he was able to catch a wave in to the beach.

His friends then helped him walk 200m to a car.

Mr Hughes said he could not tell exactly how much blood he was losing because his friends tightly wrapped his foot in a towel before taking him to hospital.

As he waited for surgery last night he remained remarkably calm for someone who had just been bitten by a shark.

He even said the attack would make the holiday ‘memorable’, and that he would not hesitate to hit the waves again in the future.

“I’ll definitely be getting back in the water,” he said.

Mr Hughes said he did not see the shark so he was not willing to speculate about what type it might have been.

Evans Head man Mick McGilvray said the shark was most likely a bronze whaler or a bull shark.

Both are known man-eaters, but Mr McGilvray said the shark that bit Mr Hughes would have been no bigger than two metres.

Mr McGilvray said the spot where Mr Hughes was surfing had murky water which sharks loved.

“It’s definitely a sharky area,” he said.

Mr McGilvray, who operates a chartered fishing boat, said between five and 10 sharks were caught on that stretch of beach between Evans Head and Broadwater each year.

He said he caught two Great White sharks nearby three years ago.

Another tourist lost his leg to a shark bite while swimming at Evans Head in the late 1980s.

“Mr Hughes was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Mr McGilvray said.

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SurfPulse just received a report from the Shark Research Committee of a shark attack in Santa Cruz on Thurs., Nov. 5:

On November 5, 2009 Eric Geiselman was surfing at Lagunas, just north of Santa Cruz. The following report was posted on the websiteSuper Spectacular Adventures by Geiselman:

“I don’t even know how to describe it. Everything happened so quickly! I was surfing with my brother Evan and Taylor Brothers at this wave called Lagoonas. The waves were sh..ty and it was raining. I wasn’t even that motivated to go out. Evan and Taylor were in typical ‘grom’ mode and wanted to have a paddle. Jay Thompson and a couple other guys were out surfing too. Right before it was getting dark everyone went in except us. I was sitting out the back just waiting for a wave. I had my back towards the ocean looking straight towards the beach to line up when it happened. Out of nowhere I got attacked from underneath. My board broke instantly right underneath me from the crazy force and I pretty much fell through my board but somehow managed to keep the front end under me. I knew right away I was being attacked and sort of just went into panic mode. I actually kicked it to when I was scrambling to get away. I was screaming to my brother who was about 30 yards away from me. My leash was still attached to the back end of my board when I was scratching to get away but, I was too scared to even reach back and undo it! What was so crazy is we weren’t even that far off the beach. Luckily I made it in to the shore. My buddy Mike Lopez and Taylor’s brother Cavin filmed me scratching once they heard me screaming. All that you can see on footage. Somehow my board didn’t get a bite in it?? Luckily it hit me by my fins so I think that might have spooked it. It was definitely the scariest thing that has ever happen to me. It’s crazy because it felt like a really bad nightmare. So scary to know how helpless you are in the water when something like that goes down! Thank God that’s all that happened!”

Please report any shark sighting, encounter, or attack to the Shark Research Committee.

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A kayaker is lucky to be alive after being attacked by a four-metre great white shark in the ocean off Victoria’s south-west coast.

Rhys Gadsden was out for a morning paddle off Portland on Friday when he says a great white shark appeared from the deep and wrapped its jaws around his sea kayak, leaving giant puncture marks.

The 27-year-old was flipped off the kayak and spent a terrifying 15 minutes in the water by his kayak desperately hoping he would not be eaten alive.

‘‘I grabbed my oars, hit it in the head probably five to six times and it released it,’’ the Portland man told the Nine Network.

‘‘As soon as it released its bite it turned and headbutted me and knocked me over and put me in the water with it.

‘‘It was freaky being in the water, yeah, I didn’t know where it went, I didn’t know if it was going to come back.

‘‘I didn’t know what to do really, I didn’t want to splash around and make it come back.’’

Finally a nearby boat came to his rescue.‘‘It took me a while to calm down, I was shaking for hours after,’’ he said.

‘‘It was big, dark eyes, scary, evil, I never want to do that again.’’

Less than 24 hours after coming face to face with the great white, Mr Gadsden was brave enough to paddle out for a few metres into the water on Saturday for TV cameras.His friends have also nicknamed him ‘‘shark-bait’’.

Local surf life savers have conducted patrols of the harbour since the attack but have not spotted the shark.

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This is kind of scary for me. I swim in these waters regularly. I still can’t believe it. This is something you only see in Shark Week!

Related links

• Shark Spotted off Sunset BeachPhotos
• Great White May Have Been Spotted Off Local Beach Video

LOS ANGELES — Shark sightings are up along Southern California’s coast and experts believe at least two great white sharks are lurking in the water near some of the area’s most popular beaches.

According to the Shark Research Committee, an organization dedicated to shark research based in Los Angeles, there have been more than 20 confirmed sightings of a shark breaching at Sunset Beach over the last five months.

The latest sighting took place on Saturday, October 3, 2009 when Randy Wright, who was kayaking 320 yards off the coast, spotted what appeared to be a great white shark jump completely out of the water.

Wright was able to capture several photographs of the incident.

Wright says he had been in the water for about an hour and a half and had spotted several dolphins in the area. But, it’s what happened next that caught his attention.

“I heard a large swooshing noise just east of my position in the direction of the Bel Air Bay Club. I grabbed my camera… I fired off four shots of something. I wasn’t sure — it was airborne and then splashing,” Wright wrote of his experience.

He was shocked when he saw what he caught with his camera.

The photographs show a great white shark, believed to be 8-10 feet long, in mid-air, experts say.

Another shark was spotted the day before in the same area by a local surfer.

Brian Moore says “I saw a fairly large shark breach completely out of the water and land on its back. It was grey with a white belly and 8-10 feet in length. It’s unclear if what Moore saw was the same shark that Wright saw, experts say.

Ralph Collier, who heads research for the Shark Research Committee, says experts believe at least two great white sharks are frequenting the waters off Sunset Beach.

One was tagged by shark experts. The shark spotted on Saturday and caught on camera was not tagged.

Similar sightings were reported in the waters along Will Rogers State Beach, San Onofre State Beach, Huntington Beach and Terramar Beach in Carlsbad as well as near Santa Cruz island near Santa Barbara.

Sightings were also reported in the waters along the Central Coast and Northern California as far north as Oregon.

Collier says there have only been three great white shark attacks in the waters off Southern California this year, none of them fatal. Humans “didn’t appear to be the intended target” of the sharks.

He says the number of shark sightings shows that these amazing creatures really “don’t want to attack humans.”

Collier says the number of sightings are up in the area, but more humans are also frequenting the area. He wants to raise awareness and says the report is not intended to frighten anyone.

The last fatal great white shark attack involved a swimmer who was killed on April 25, 2008 near Solana Beach.

Collier also says funding for shark research has dropped off due, in part, to the recession and he is asking for donations to help buy more tagging devices.

Anyone who would like to donate can go to shark research committee for more information.

Great white sharks are known to live in almost all coastal and offshore waters with the greatest concentrations off the southern coasts of Australia, South Africa, California and Mexico.

The great white is the world’s largest known predatory fish which preys on smaller fish, dolphins, seals and sea lions.