Shark attacks are rare

After a great white shark attack killed a man last week, some have brought attention to recent reports of sightings in Huntington Beach, and even a possibly bitten surfboard. Should residents be worried? Not really, experts said.

Following the attack in Solano Beach, extra attention has settled on recent reports of shark encounters in the Huntington Beach area documented by the nonprofit Shark Research Committee. But both lifeguards and experts called attacks extremely rare.

The committee’s website lists three reports of shark sightings in the Huntington Beach area in March and April, as well as one reported attack. On March 7, surfer Thomas Larkin reported damage to his surfboard off Dog Beach that committee founder Ralph Collier said was the bite of a great white shark.

Huntington Beach Marine Safety Chief Kyle Lindo said his lifeguards always looked into reports of sharks, but could only confirm a dying mako shark beached itself in mid-March. As for the alleged attack, Larkin didn’t actually see a shark and experts were split on the cause of the damage, he said.

“Our official position is we don’t know,” he said. “There was not conclusive evidence regarding what broke the board.”

Despite the reports, there’s no reason to worry about Huntington Beach, said Collier, who has followed sharks on the Pacific coast for decades and wrote the book “Shark Attacks of the Twentieth Century: from the Pacific Coast of North America.”

“Maybe people in beaches north and south of Huntington Beach are having encounters, but people just don’t hear about it,” he said. “Surfers often have their own way of dealing with it, whether getting out of the water or sitting there and waiting for the shark to leave the area. For a lot of them, although it’s hard to believe, it’s second nature.”

Shark attacks, especially fatal ones, are extremely rare considering how often sharks swim by, Collier said. Over a century on the entire West Coast of the U.S., there have been 147 shark attacks and 11 fatalities, Collier said.

“Honestly, I don’t know why we don’t have more, because of the exploding population,” he said. Twice as many people have died in surfing accidents in the last year than from sharks in the last eight, he said.

When a great white shark does bite a human, it’s usually just investigating, he said. Humans are not what great whites, or any other shark, are looking to eat, Collier said.

“If humans were the same as some delicacy might be to us, like a truffle or a lobster tail, I would never have any information from survivors because there wouldn’t be any,” he said.

Though freak tragedies like a shark attack are painful to everyone, it’s safe to go into the water, Lindo said.

“It’s in the back of your mind when you’re in the water now,” he said. “But I believe a fatal attack has never happened here, and we’re up to 10 million visitors a year. You’re more likely to be struck by lightning.”

MICHAEL ALEXANDER may be reached at (714) 966-4618 or at michael.alexander@ latimes.com.