Unusual Looking Hammerhead Shark Spotted Near Huntington Beach Pier
HUNTINGTON BEACH (CBSLA.com) — A hammerhead shark has been spotted by lifeguards approximately 75-yards offshore near the Huntington Beach pier.
The sighting of the 6- to 7-foot shark was reported Thursday afternoon, prompting lifeguards to warn a diver who was swimming close to the shark and advise him to get out of the water.
"All of a sudden, one of my buddies screams to me and he says, 'Hey! Get over here, get over here!' He goes, 'Hurry, hurry, hurry!' " says Mark Narino, a fisherman.
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Narino had his fishing pole in the water and saw the shark swim by.
"He just kept going down towards shore and some girl goes, 'You better call the lifeguard,' " he said. "So they ran and called the lifeguards."
Another fisherman snapped a photograph of the unusual looking shark, while lifeguards spotted it too and notified a group of commercial divers inspecting the pier pilings, one of whom was in the water.
"I get told over the radio to stop what I'm doing immediately, drop everything," Brandon Crispo, a commercial diver, said.
Because the hammerhead shark was not acting aggressively and was under 8-feet long, officials did not close the beach but instead posted advisory signs and made announcements on the loud speaker.
The shark was quite a sight for those who caught a glimpse of the hammerhead, a species not often seen this far north.
"What we do, we really aren't looking for them, so we just got our head down doing work, and it probably happens more than we think but this is great, the water is so clear so everybody could see them," Ralph Tuckfield, a commercial diver, said.
The signs are expected to remain posted a mile to the north of the pier and a mile to the south until Friday afternoon.
