Recent shark sightings not stopping Santa Cruz County beachgoers

Santa Cruz County is no stranger to shark sightings in recent years.

After a Northern California doctor was killed by a shark in Hawaii this weekend, beach goers in Santa Cruz say they take precautions, but it doesn’t keep them out of the water.

“I try to avoid the sharks, I know they are natural predator and it’s pretty awesome that they are here, but I prefer not to be in the water right next to them. Like if there’s a sighting at Manresa (beach) I’ll avoid that beach and go somewhere there’s protection,” said Tod Anderson.

Anderson has been surfing in Santa Cruz for 30 years and says he’ll go to spots with more kelp if he’s heard of shark sightings in the area.

Naturalist with Stagnaro Charter boats, Megan Petersen, said sharks usually avoid kelp heavy areas. “They are not as sensitive to their surroundings when they are in the kelp, they can’t sense what’s around them as well as they could in open water, so kelp is typically not where they like to be.”

Petersen said the most common place you will see them, warm and calm water. “They want to be in that calm warm water, so typically they are not going to be overlapping as much with surfers, it’s more paddle borders, swimmers and beach goers.”

The warmest water in Santa Cruz County is between Seacliff State Beach and New Brighton beaches, which is where most recent shark sightings have occurred.

The kind we’re seeing is mainly juvenile great whites. “They’re typically not very aggressive when they are juveniles, most of the sharks are feeding on flat fish, at that stage in life and they’re not interested in mammals. So most of the attacks from that type of shark are mistakes, they’re looking at people and thinking they might be a seal or sea lion” said Petersen.

Stagnaro Charter Boats does look for sharks on their Whale Watching tours, but say they will be starting shark specific tours this summer because there has been such an increase in interest.