How big was Big River shark? Authorities still don’t know, is sea lion population crash changing shark behavior?
Authorities don’t know how big the shark was that bit teacher James Eastman on Big River Beach on Wednesday.
“We’re still waiting on the personal/witness accounts, wetsuit and wound photos that calibrated with ruler for bite analyses. There is team that works on these data but it takes time to get all that information, run the genetic analyses and do the bite analyses,” said Dr. Christopher G. Lowe, Dept of Biological Sciences – Shark Lab California State University Long Beach.
We had reports saying it was very big from eyewitnesses at first and after that, others who said it was small and young? Which is it? Apparently, there will be an answer after studies are done.
We will have much more on sharks and plan to interview Eastman Monday more in depth about sharks. He seems to be involved with the investigation of this incident, but we had contacted him with the following questions, which we have asked other shark researchers.
Should people be more worried when a bite happens? Is an individual shark more likely to bite again if it has already bitten, or less?
We have been getting a lot of information about a die off among the sea lion populations, due to overcrowding and disease. Great white shark numbers have increased side by side with their favorite food- the marine mammals with whiskers! Does that mean they will decline. Are sharks hungrier and looking for other prey?
Eastman replied to that by saying he doubted sharks would have any trouble finding a sea lion on the Coast at this point.
Two other experts are telling us that sharks are actually coming closer to shore because sea lions when sick are easy marks in shallow water, seeking land when weakened by the diseases they are having in greater numbers.
In the other main news coming out about this, 3 State Parks LIfeguards were instrumental in saving the surfer who was bit. They run almost all the accessible spots on the Coast and we are safer because of them. There are now news items on this! The state parks crew and others did a rescue. We got reports of a big shark from the bluffs above but some on the beach said it was a small shark and to us, the bites look like a small shark, but we shall see.
