Great White Shark Tours The New Rage In Southern California

DANA POINT, CA — Great white shark sightings in Southern California are becoming a part of life in the early summer of 2017. There are other opportunities to explore the golden coast and the mighty Pacific Ocean without getting your feet wet.

Dana Wharf Sportfishing & Whale Watching - Shark Search Adventure has drawn visitors like Rancho Cucomonga residents Mariana and Anthony Schlumpf.

"We just can't stop talking about this tour," Schlumpf said of the shark adventure they embarked upon in mid-May. "You feel safe because you are on the boat."

While waiting to locate the circling great whites, the Shark Search Adventure captain used the time to educate passengers on the local ocean, the southern California weather patterns and local marine life.

Both Mariana and Anthony love taking adventure tours, visiting National Parks and seeing marine life in their natural habitats.

"We have gone swimming with giant green sea turtles, rare marine iguanas and even penguins," she said. "The Dana Wharf Shark Tour, close to home, was too good to pass up.

"We’ve never seen a great white shark that close before and that was completely exhilarating, as we hoped it would be," Schlumpf said.

Shark sighting and shark swimming tours are making a jaws-sized comeback, or at least getting larger than life attention.

In San Diego, multiple day tours to Guadalupe Island in mexico are offered by such tour companies as Horizon Charters and a local tour group Surf You To The Moon offers a chance to snorkel with Leopard sharks.

But great whites are still the main attraction in shark watching for 2017.

Another view from Dana Wharf, as Captain Frank of Dana Point recently had a great white shark circle his boat off Capo Beach.

"This great white shark seemed more curious than dangerous, but the fisherman made sure to keep all his limbs away from the sharks teeth," they said on YouTube.

What that means for beach-goers over the Memorial Day holiday weekend remains to be seen, according to Chief Jason Young of the Orange County Lifeguards.

Monitoring the coastline from Capistrano Beach to South Laguna Beach, he says that this year there have been more shark sightings than in years before.

Though Young does not claim to be a shark expert, he has observed the southern California coastline as a lifeguard for more than 25 years.

"This year there are many more shark sightings than we've seen in previous years," he said. "If you come to be beach, make sure you always check with the lifeguards, find out if there is any shark advisory in your area, and make yourself knowledgeable."

Local surfers have taken to wearing magnetic bands around their ankles as an attempt to dissuade the predators from interest. Temecula resident Kelcey Lau discussed the bands after a surf session with his son, Kai.

"We got magnetic bands to wear, and they're supposed to keep sharks from being interested in you," Kelcey Lau said. "I'm not sure if they work, but it makes you feel a little better, and we're still out there, surfing."

Whether or not magnetic shark repellents work remains to be seen. One thing that lifeguards do know, is a few basic rules that can help keep you safe.

Swimmers are advised to not go into the water at dusk or dawn, and when entering the water, you should stay close to the shoreline. Other methods of making yourself less interesting to the great white shark population are avoiding shiny jewelry when in the water and always swimming in groups.

The main thing all beach-goers should do when arriving at the beach is to check with the lifeguard of that beach for information on whether there have been sharks sighted in the area, according to Orange County Lifeguards up and down the coast.

In Memorial Day of 2015, during El Nino, more than 12 great white sharks were spotted in Seal Beach. Two years later, sharks are still hanging around the Orange County coastline, bigger and in greater numbers.

Long Beach shark expert Professor Chris Lowe, director of the Cal State Long Beach shark lab, discussed the increase in shark sightings along the Orange County coastline with Patch. On the rise since 2015, unusually warm waters off the Pacific coast have attracted the great white sharks and kept them here possibly year-round, while juveniles ordinarily would have headed to the warmer waters off Mexico in winter months, according to Lowe.

"For 40 years we have had unfettered access to the ocean. We never had to deal with predators because they were gone,” said Lowe. “I think we need to recognize that these predators are coming back. When we go in the ocean, it is not Disneyland. Your safety is not guaranteed.”

Lowe advises people not to surf or swim alone.

“Stay in groups,” he said. “The most populated beaches have the greatest protection. We basically have to learn to share the ocean with sharks.”

For more information about Dana Wharf Shark Watching trips, check the Patch Calendar or contact: www.danawharf.com

Read More Shark Activity In Southern California:

• Increasing Shark Activity In Pacific Might Not Be A Fluke
  
• Woman Attacked By Shark At Camp Pendleton Beach 'Fighting For Her Life'
• Shark Attacks Buoy In Dana Point: WATCH
• 25 Sharks Sighted In San Clemente, Beaches Closed

Photo, YouTube screen capture