GW bites swimmer off Manhattan Beach Pier

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ronski101

Contributor
Messages
472
Reaction score
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Location
redondo beach, calif
# of dives
500 - 999
Thought this 4th of July event would have been covered here but I have not found it.
Apparently a juvenile (7ft) Great White got hooked off the Manhattan Beach pier and a long distance swimmer happened by and got bit on the torso by the stressed out shark. The city is closing the pier to fishing for 60 days while they think about it. GW's are a protected species and the fisherman is supposed to cut the line but this didn't happen. The south bay off los angeles is a GW rookery so there are bunches of them swimming around out there but attacks are extremely rare. Hope we don't have a repeat of the JAWS type of panic.......
 
Don't know the details but have done a lot of pier fishing. Sometimes you do not know what you have until you have faught it for a while. Then the question is if you are going to release it do you want 50 yds of line hanging off the fish or do you want to get closer before releasing?
 
Based on the video, wouldn't it have made more sense to reposition the boat and drag the shark away from the swimmers, rather than yelling some stupid and ultimately useless 'instructions' at them??
 
Is it just me or did it seem quite clear the fishermen knew what they'd hooked, thought it funny it was amongst the swimmers until it bit somebody? Sounded like a right bunch of ***holes.

No boat Aruba, they are on a pier.
 
Is it just me or did it seem quite clear the fishermen knew what they'd hooked, thought it funny it was amongst the swimmers until it bit somebody? Sounded like a right bunch of ***holes.

No boat Aruba, they are on a pier.

Turned up the volume and listened more closely ... You're right on all counts.
 
we were in L.A. when this happened watched it on the news and were appalled at the reaction from those on the video. Seemed like they were laughing at what was happening to the swimmer
 
They may have thought that the shark would not bite a swimmer while hooked. There is a l lot of line out so releasing is not much of an option. The shark is going to go where it wants to. I have fought sharks from a pier and you have very little control over where they are going to go.
 
What could be stupider than purposely mixing the user group of swimmers with pier fishing?

I am not sure who is has less sense--the cities that put a fishing pier on a swimming beach, or the families that take their kids to swim next to one....and of course, the fisherman on the pier drinking beer ... could care less about the sharks they bring in to the swimming beach....
 
In NC the fishing pier has some priority since they cannot move and swimmers and boaters have the rest of the beach/ocean. There is supposed to be an exclusion zone around the pier. But a big fish can easily be over 200 yds out on line after being hooked.
 

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