A hammerhead shark, one of two seen last Thursday, was captured on video lazily swimming in the waters off the coast of Newport Beach.
The shark, which was approximately 8 feet long, was about 10 miles from shore, according to the Orange County Register. Ryan Lawler, the owner of Newport Coastal Adventure and the man who shot the video of the hammerhead, told the Register, “I was just watching the shark swim … look how relaxed and menacing it’s moving.”
Lawler said he decided to play the 1959 tune “Sleep Walk” as the background music for the video based on the shark’s disposition. “It was swimming without a care. I thought that was such better fit of music that would something that would be an aggressive play on sharks,” he reportedly said:
Although hammerhead sharks are rare to local waters, they’ve been appearing more frequently off the Orange County coastline over the past few years due to the warmer temperatures; scientists are attributing it to El Nino.
The Register reports that in past few years, hammerheads only came as close as San Clemente Island and swam into local waters when temperatures reached 75 degrees.
Las September, Breitbart News reported that a 10-foot long hammerhead shark bit a kayaker on the foot off the coast of Malibu, when he and his friend were fishing for yellowtail. The bite was so deep that the kayaker’s bone was visible.
The month before that, a man off the coast of San Diego had his hand bitten by a hammerhead while diving 100 miles off the coast.
Around the same time last year, there were also several hammerhead and great white shark sightings off the coast of California’s famous beaches. When such incidents occur, beachgoers are often given stern warnings not to enter the waters for their own safety.
Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter @AdelleNaz
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