More Deadly Encounters : Great White Shark: ‘Jaws’ Comes to Life

SANTA BARBARA —  When Tom Roff began fishing 17 years ago, great white sharks were so rare off Southern California that if a fisherman spotted one he often alerted neighboring boats so they could cruise over and take a look.

But during the last few years there have been so many sightings that fishermen no longer view the great white as a novelty.

“We’d go years without ever seeing a great white,” said Roff, who fishes out of Ventura harbor. “But now a lot of fishermen are talking about them, and they’re catching about three or four a year out there.”

Few creatures possess the savage mystique of the great white shark, which can reach 21 feet, weigh 3 1/2 tons and is known as an aggressive predator. In 1972, when a great white terrorized the fictional island of Amity in the book “Jaws,” many readers were reluctant to venture beyond their beach towels that summer.

Predict More Deaths

Now that great whites are turning up in greater numbers in Southern California, some scientists predict that the death of a young woman kayaker in an apparent great white shark attack off Malibu last week was a tragedy that will become more common.

“You’ve got more and more kayakers, windsurfers and surfers competing with more and more sharks in Southern California,” said Ralph Collier, president of the Shark Research Committee, a Los Angeles scientific organization. “It’s just a matter of time before the sharks and the people meet.”

Until recently, an attack by a great white occurred only once every few years along the California coast, said John McCosker, director of the Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco. Now, he said, there are about three to four attacks a year. UCLA graduate student Tamara McAllister, whose body was found last week with a 13-inch-wide chunk of flesh missing from her thigh, was the first person to die from a shark attack in Southern California in nearly 30 years.

Predator-Prey Link

“When the prey increases, the predator increases,” said Doyle Hanan, a marine biologist with the California Department of Fish and Game. “Not just with sharks, but any kind of animal. If you have more rabbits, you’re going to have more coyotes.”

Historically, the majority of great white attacks were off the beaches of South Africa and Australia. But in Northern California, the population of great whites has increased so dramatically that a patch of ocean between Monterey, southern Marin County and the Farallon Islands off San Francisco is called the Red Triangle because there have been more shark attacks there than anywhere in the world. In the last 15 years, there have been 31 shark attacks and two deaths in the area.

In all, since the 1920s, there have been 62 recorded shark attacks in California--10% in Southern California--and seven deaths, according to Fish and Game statistics.

Attacks will never be as common in Southern California because great whites prefer colder waters. But many scientists believe, although no reliable statistics are available, that the number of great whites is increasing all along the West Coast because the supply of their favorite food--seals and sea lions--is growing at a rapid rate. The largest concentration of great whites in Southern California is near the Channel Islands.

Scientists know the great white is a vicious predator, but because none has survived in captivity long enough for extensive study, they know little about its behavior or its migrating patterns. Most great whites on the West Coast are found from the Gulf of Alaska to Point Conception, and smaller numbers stray as far south as Baja California.

The motivation for great white attacks on people is still a matter of debate. Some shark experts have suggested that attacks can be motived by “territorial imperative”--sharks protecting hunting grounds against intruders such as surfers, divers or kayakers.

But McCosker, an authority on great white sharks, has a simpler theory.

“I suggest they’re trying to eat us,” he said.

Study of Attacks

California’s Department of Fish and Game has conducted studies of all attacks on humans along the coast in an effort to develop safety rules. Fish and Game scientists have found that, contrary to popular belief, great whites do not immediately kill and devour large prey, but inflict debilitating wounds and wait for them to die.

In the past, scientists theorized that sharks found the taste of humans or their wet suits distasteful and spit them out to look for other prey. But now scientists believe that a shark attacks quickly, inflicts a debilitating wound and then retreats and waits for its prey to weaken from loss of blood. The shark can then peacefully eat its prey instead of battling, for example, an enraged 500-pound sea lion.

This “mugging” technique, scientists say, is a vivid example of why it is important to always surf, kayak or dive with a friend. A number of victims’ lives have been saved when companions pulled them to safety after the initial shark attack.

Almost all attacks on humans occur near the water’s surface, the same location in which marine mammals fall victims to great whites, McCosker said. Sharks, looking up, can easily mistake the silhouette of a surfboard, a kayak or a rubber-suited scuba diver for a large sea lion.

Despite the threat that great whites can pose to ocean-goers, scientists say it would be a mistake to exterminate the fish, because they are an important part of the ocean’s complex ecosystem. By eating sea mammals, sharks help maintain a balance in the ocean’s food chain.

Moreover, scientists stress that attacks in Southern California are still extremely rare. “There are a lot of sharks around, but the chances of them attacking are still very low,” said Jeffrey Seigel, a shark expert at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. “It’s still a lot more dangerous on the Santa Monica Freeway than on Santa Monica Beach.”

But Craig Brooker, a commercial sea urchin diver, said after the attack on the kayakers that many divers were concerned because they have been seeing more great whites.

“Those people in the kayak must have been splashing around with the paddles--that’s like ringing a dinner bell for a shark,” said Brooker of Santa Barbara. “When I get in the water I never jump off the boat. I always slide in and slip real easily into the water.”

It is also a good safety rule to stay out of areas where there are large numbers of marine mammals, said Charles Fullerton, regional director of the U.S. Marine Fisheries Service.

“I’ve personally encountered a few great whites while I’ve been diving,” he said. “I just hid behind some rocks and pretended to be a rock too for a very long time. If you start to panic and swim away in a hurry, sometimes, more out of curiousity or hunger, the shark will hit you. Splashing indicates to the shark that there’s a wounded fish around, or a sea lion diving down, or a feeding frenzy near him.”

As long as there have been shark attacks, people have been searching for ways to repel the fish. U.S. Navy aviators have quit using shark repellent because it does not work. There are a few products available for scuba divers and others who want to be prepared in case of a shark attack. One item, the “Bang Stick,” a pen-sized cartridge that a diver attaches to the end of a spear gun, fires a single bullet designed to frighten a large fish or shark. There is also a type of underwater chain mesh, weighing up to 20 pounds, that is designed to protect those who are diving in shark-infested waters.

But Collier of the Shark Research Committee said most divers would have better luck staying calm and quiet than firing at a shark. And a chain mesh would be ineffective against a large great white because “the mere crushing force of the jaws could cause a more serious injury than the actual bite.”

In the early 1900s, many marine mammals--the sharks’ favorite prey--had been hunted to extinction. But during the 1970s, after national legislation was passed to protect them, the population began to flourish again.

At one time, sea lions, which had been hunted for their blubber, numbered less than 100 in California, said Hanan of Fish and Game. Now the population is estimated at nearly 90,000, double that of 10 years ago and growing by nearly 6,000 a year.

Sought by Fishermen

Although sharks in the past were considered “throw-aways” by fishermen, today they are sought after as commercial catch. Thresher and angel sharks are now among the most popular items in fish markets. And, sport fishing for various types of shark is so popular now that every year there is a Big Bucks Shark Tourney off Oxnard, with a first prize of $6,500 and a $5,000 bonus for the heaviest catch of the day. Wayne Prather, an Oxnard electrical contractor, won the contest two years ago when he landed a 180-pound blue shark.

“Those fish bite oars, gaffs . . . they bite ropes in two,” Prather said. “I wouldn’t even land the fish on the boat. I landed it on the swim-step in the back. A 180-pound shark flopping on the deck next to you could do some damage.”

Also contributing to this article were Times staff writers Meg Sullivan in Ventura and Myron Levin in Los Angeles.