Fifth Shark sighting at Pismo Beach in 31 days

August 31, 2011

A fifth shark sighting in 31 days at Pismo Beach prompted officials to post warning signs along the beach.

A local fisherman reported seeing a 15 to 20 foot shark near the pier at about about 10 a.m. on Wednesday. As a precaution, officials posted warnings signs along the beach that are slated to remain in place for three days.

Nevertheless, the beach is still open and some surfers and swimmers are not letting the warnings keep them out of the water.

On July 31, the first sighting of a shark occurred near the pier about 90-feet offshore. Within five days, three additional shark sightings were reported.

During this time of year, the waters are teeming with bait fish such as anchovies and smelt which attract dolphins and seals which attract sharks.


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I’ve heard that the occasional shark sighting keeps a good majority of the people from Fresno and Bakersfield out of the water, making surfing a more enjoyable experience for our locals. Reporting a shark sighting if there really isn’t one certainly isn’t ethical, but is it illegal? Either way, could anyone prove you didn’t actually see one? Just sayin’.


YOU write,


“could anyone prove you didn’t actually see one? Just sayin’”.


FTW there’s enough sharks out there, nobody needs to make anything up!


Like are you calling the reporting party a liar? Seems that’s your drift, maybe your boat will sink and you can get up close and personal with one of these things.


Don’t you just love it.


Looks like the surfer backed environmental policies might finally just bite them in the ass.


Care to enlighten us on exactly which surfer backed environmental policy caused a shark to surprisingly appear in its normal habitat? Do you propose we mass slaughter all the seals and dump millions of barrels of oil off the coast to keep the sharks away? With the rate of the 1 shark attack every 50-100 years in this county, I think the surfers will be just fine.


Sloslo, you write”With the rate of the 1 shark attack every 50-100 years in this county, I think the surfers will be just fine.”


A lady was bitten inhalf at AVILA not to long ago, a guy KILLED at surf beach vandenburg, A GIRLS ARM BIT OFF IN HAWAII, numurous attacks around the world and in our back yard where do you get your information from a book that is 50-100 years old?


This guy could of been eaten, your right mass slaughter of the seals would keep the sharks away and they are already dumping the oil! Always a keen one to point out a good idea!


I say there are enough sharks here now to lift the ban on hunting white sharks, just long enough to see how long they are really growing these days, and if there’s plenty of big ones, let’s just eat em, like they would happily eat YOU!


Roger this surfer wishes they were exstinct. Read on true story,




Wasn’t much on here so here’s some chum, TRUE STORY


1978 I was surfing hazard canyon and here comes a big set of waves with an at least 25″ Great white riding the biggest wave, going at least 35-45 mph, with the spray blasting off him I could see him coming from at least a mile away, needless to say this is not my best day and I have never been the same since.

So here he comes, big fin 3 feet high, I am praying , please go on bye, but no, I had caught the big sharks eye, and he looked at me as he did a big sweeping cut back on the swell and proceeded to advance right at me coming down and going faster than the swell he was riding.

Okay so I haven’t crapped yet, but when the dam thing goes under water about 35 feet away coming straight at me I said,” To hell with the sitting still shit, I am getting the flock out of here.”

There was a smaller wave infront of the big one the shark was riding, so I paddled as hard as I could not even thinging I could catch this little wave from so far out, the big wave that the shark had out run was behind us causing the smaller wave to break and I was able to catch it and turn left going away from land and into deeper water, I knew there was no way to out run this shark.

So here I am on my knees and am having the time of my life surfing and praying to god this thing from below doesn’t get to eat me on this day. I cut back on the wave after a nice little screaming left hand section and I am looking at the back end of a 25 foot plus shark that doesn’t know I am there, I immediatly pull out of the wave and look toward shore, my surfing buddies, are waving me to stay out.

So this is where it gets good, I am freaking out by now, remeber the big wave the shark came riding in on in the beginning? Well the shark went in so close to the rocks at Hazard Canyon that the big wave came and blew the big shark up over the rocks and into the lagoon right next to where we used to change, Ed Dumong a commercial fisherman was on the beach, he saw my chance for saftey and got everybody there to do jumping jacks and wave me in, I caught the thrid wave of the set and road it all the way in to a foot and ahalf of water, this guy I barely knew is screaming at me to get out of the water NOW!

I was pretty tired but I did what he said and low and behold here is the 25 foot great white flopping around 20′ from the rocks we are all moving back on, the tide was medium and the shark had such good sonar it was able to find the only way off the reef straight back out in a three foot deep channel, back through the waves like a bull dozer. This is a true story and it was reported to the coast gaurd, I don’t surf now unless there are others in the water, I also feel that since that attack, there has been a dramatic increase in shark ativity on the central coast of California. So becareful and if you do go into the water, remeber you are never alone.


They aren’t sharks It is the FBI and IRS and DOJ swooping down on the Central Coast to rid them of corrupt individuals namely Kelly gearhart, Robert jones and Jay Miller


The pelicans getting hurt in Avila, the Sharks in Pismo, there’s an amazing amount of sea life close to shore right now.


you are welcome!


Why do they ever take the stupid signs down? There are ALWAYS sharks in the ocean. (I vote this the stupidest waste of money in America)


Someone saw a shark! In the OCEAN!?!?! WOW!


I thought they all just hung out at the court house.


Surifng is now even more dangerous than usual. Please, don’t go surfing. A modestly safer alternative is to go to shopping in downtown SLO.


Don’t swim with the seals in a black wet suit…