A California man has shared a harrowing video of being stalked by a shark while hydrofoiling off the coast of Santa Barbara. Ron Takeda and his friend Tavis were traveling from UC Santa Barbara to Carpinteria on hydrofoil boards when the incident occurred.
The Encounter
Tavis captured the footage from a mounted camera, with him yelling 'don't fall' and 'don't stop' to Takeda, who was behind him. 'The shark followed Ron closely for over two miles. In time, that's about 10-12 minutes,' Tavis wrote in the video caption. 'It was a full game of cat and mouse, but...with a 10-11ft shark.'
Takeda, who has posted several hydrofoiling videos, recounted the incident on Facebook. He first noticed something was wrong when he heard 'splashing and gurgling' behind his board. Looking back, he saw 'a big girthy dark torpedo shape following me with trailing whitewater.' Initially assuming it was a dolphin, he yelled to Tavis, who shouted back that it was a shark. From that moment, Takeda was 'highly motivated' not to fall.
Shark Behavior
'Most of the time it seemed like the shark was either two feet behind or actually underneath between my board tail and foil,' Takeda wrote. 'The shark thrashed hard to match every turn and speed back to me.' He hoped the creature would lose interest but grew concerned when it persisted. 'Long periods would go by and I'd think he left…but then I'd hear the water coming off its dorsal again or I'd hear a sucking sound.'
Eventually, the shark gave up, and the pair completed the remaining 12 miles of their trip without further incident.
Shark Species
It is unclear what kind of shark was chasing them. However, Neil Nathan, a scientist with the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory, told SFGate that the area has one of Southern California's largest populations of juvenile great white sharks. Young great whites prefer warmer coastal waters to regulate their body temperature.
With El Niño conditions expected between May and July in California, water temperatures will rise, potentially bringing more sharks to the area earlier. 'We may also see range expansion further north, which has been observed in previous years with marine heatwaves,' Nathan said. 'Areas such as Monterey Bay or Bodega Bay that historically did not have juvenile white sharks due to cold temperatures have since hosted juvenile aggregation sites.'
Recent Shark Sightings
Beachgoers in Southern California have noticed more great whites recently. Huntington Beach closed last Thursday due to a sighting of a 10-foot shark. In March, authorities confirmed an 8-foot great white shark off Newport Beach, prompting a one-mile beach closure east and west of the location.
