8ft Great White Shark Closes Beaches in Orange County (Video)

Captioning the video, San Clemente Surf Rescue wrote:

“Shark sighting at noon on October 29th just north of the San Clemente Pier. This shark is estimated to be about an 8-foot Great White. Lifeguards immediately responded with a 4-hour closure 1 mile north and south of the pier. With the water expected to open at 4 pm, the closure was soon downgraded to advisory. Stay safe out there!”

Great white shark activity in Southern California is common during this time of year. In fact, there’s even a colloquial term, “Sharktober,” that’s been coined. Whereas juvenile great white sharks like to hang out in Southern California in the summertime, due to the warmer water and abundance of their preferred prey (fish, stingrays, etc.), the adults begin to return to the west coast in the fall, per documented migratory patterns.

From Shark Stewards, an organization dedicated to saving endangered sharks, they explain:

“Sharktober is the fall months when the adult great white sharks reappear on the west coast of North America after around six months of absence. After migrating thousands of miles roundtrip between North America and an oceanic area east of Hawaii called the ‘White Shark Café’, the mature white sharks return in late summer to their feeding grounds off the Central California coast. This is also a period of maximum probability to see or encounter an adult white shark along the west coast, and the time of peak human-white shark interactions (e.g. attacks).”

Stay safe out there.