Would you go near the water with reports of these creatures nearby?
A two-mile stretch of Orange County shoreline has been closed after several large sharks were spotted.
A sheriff’s helicopter crew spotted the sharks off Sunset Beach in the city of Huntington Beach on Sunday around 2pm.
The sharks were estimated to be at least 8 feet long and 150 yards from shore.
A Huntington Beach Police Department helicopter then flew out around 3.30pm to surveillance the area and spotted the three sharks, according to the Orange County Register.
‘Because of the size, we closed the water down,’ Huntington Beach lifeguard Lt. Claude Panis told the Orange County Reigster.
‘Our policy is to close the water down for at least four hours. The beach is open. We made adjustments, posted signs and we cleared the water out.’
The Huntington Beach Fire Department said Sunset Beach and the adjoining Surfside Beach in Seal Beach have been shut down until at least Monday morning.
Authorities will re-evaluate the waters on Monday morning to determine if they will open the shoreline up.
The sighting came a week after a swimmer in a wetsuit was attacked by a shark about 15 miles to the south at Corona Del Mar State Beach on May 30.
The woman, 52-year-old Maria Korcsmaros, had a bite from a large shark on her upper body, but she is expected to survive.
She was pulled from the Pacific Ocean by lifeguards on a patrol boat on Sunday about 150 yards off the shore of Newport Beach after she was seen in distress.
The shark that attacked her was not found.
With the increase in great white sightings in the last few years, researchers who have been studying juvenile sharks off Sunset Beach said juveniles have a tendency to leave during the colder months.
However, the researchers at Cal State Long Beach’s Shark Lab said some have remained in the area as a result of warmer waters due to El Nino.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3626802/Shark-sightings-force-closure-2-California-beaches.html#ixzz4AonY6UWK
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