Unusual looking hammerhead shark spotted off Calif. pier
HUNTINGTON BEACH -- Swimmers and fisherman had quite the scare when an unusual looking hammerhead shark was spotted approximately 75-yard off a California pier, reports CBS Los Angeles.
Lifeguards spotted the shark off Huntington Beach pier, a rare sight of a a species not often seen that far north. The sighting of the 6- to 7-foot shark prompted lifeguards to warn a diver who was swimming close to the shark 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, to CBS LA.
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."
A photograph was captured by another fisherman.
CBS LA reports that because the hammerhead was not acting aggressively and was under 8-feet long, officials did not close the beach. Instead they posted advisory signs and made announcements on the loud speaker.
"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.
CBS LA reports that the warning signs are expected to remain posted a mile to the north of the pier and a mile to the south until Friday afternoon.