Not Quite ‘Shark Week’

It’s the time of year when local beachgoers might catch a rare glimpse of a shark passing by underwater.

Not to fear, local experts say, there probably aren’t any man-eaters on the prowl off Newport Beach.

“Around March and April, we seem to have an increase in sightings of small juvenile sharks,” said Ralph Collier, founder of the Shark Research Committee, a nonprofit organization that has been cataloging shark sightings up and down the Pacific Coast since 1963.

Young sharks often head closer to shore during seasonal grunion runs at area beaches this time of year, Collier said.

“They go where the food is,” he said.

The Shark Research Committee has documented one shark sighting in Newport Beach this year.

On Feb. 10, Dave Schulte reported finding the carcass of a young salmon shark on the sand in Corona del Mar.

It’s not uncommon to find young sharks washed up on the beach this time of year, Collier said. For whatever reason, they just don’t survive long after birth, he said.

“What it means is, there was an adult, female salmon shark that gave birth nearby,” Collier said.

Adult salmon sharks can grow to be up to 485 pounds.

Last year, the Shark Research Committee recorded 145 human encounters with sharks around the Pacific Coast region. There were four recorded shark sightings in Newport Beach last year.

Shark fishing is good in the ocean waters off Newport Beach in the spring and summer months, said Ty Gevas, a sales associate for Newport Landing Sportfishing.

It’s not uncommon for Newport Landing’s shark fishing expeditions in coastal waters about 5 to 10 miles off Newport Beach to hook anywhere from 15 to 20 thresher, blue and mako sharks on a good day, Gevas said.

“When it’s a good catch, it’s really good,” he said.

Newport Beach Capt. Boyd Mickley can only remember a handful of problems with sharks off local waters in his 20 years as a lifeguard, he said.

“They stay away from us and we stay away from them,” he said.

It’s not uncommon for people to report small fan sharks and leopard sharks near local beaches, Mickley said.

About three or four years ago, a small thresher shark was spotted prowling around the surf line at a local beach and lifeguards cleared people from the water, Mickley said. In 2001, a whale carcass washed down the coast and attracted great white sharks to the entrance to Newport Harbor.

Other than those incidents, the Discovery Channel’s annual “Shark Week” marathon of programming dedicated to predators of the deep causes more problems for local lifeguards than actual sharks, Mickley said.

“Everyone sees ‘Shark Week’ in the summer time and then they go to the beach and think they’re going to get attacked by a shark,” he said.