Watch: Massive Great White Feeds On Whale In San Clemente

SAN CLEMENTE, CA — A massive great white shark captivated crowds near the San Clemente Pier Thursday when it tore into a dead gray whale. The shark, estimated to be 17 feet-long, chomped on the carcass not far from shore just two days before the start of the San Clemente's popular Ocean Festival, which draws thousands to the beach.

Such a large shark sighting is rare for the area where juvenile great white sharks are more common.

"It was pretty crazy," said Ryan Troli, one of the captains at AllWater Charter.

Troli filmed the shark as it circled the whale much to the delight of onlookers on fishing and sight-seeing boats.

"You might see this in South Africa or up north, but a shark gorging on a whale is pretty crazy," [in Orange County], Troli said.

"I've been on the water for over 20 years here and I've seen some great whites, but I've never seen one that large," he added. "It was extraordinarily big and it had a bite out of its head, which is usually a sign of mating so there's probably another one around."

Every few years, a dead whale turns up near the Orange County shoreline, sometimes triggering feeding frenzies among several sharks.

The whale carcass near the San Clemente pier had been towed out to sea Wednesday about 10 miles from the pier, but it drifted back to shore again Thursday morning. That's when Troli's boss, AllWater Charter owner Marc Levine, called him and another captain, Ryan McGaffin, to get down to the pier with their cameras.

"He said there was a dead whale carcass floating off San Clemente Pier and it had some shark bites in it, so we made our way down there and found the whale carcass floating," Troli said.

They began shooting video just before 10 a.m. as the great white made its appearance, he said.

Orange County Sheriff's harbor patrol deputies and lifeguards showed up within 15 minutes to tow the whale back out to sea, which spooked the shark, Troli said.

"The shark disappeared once the sheriff showed up," Troli said. "It was kind of shy from all that boat traffic."

Troli recalled making eye contact with the shark, but wasn't too scared because he was on board a boat and the shark did not appear to be in an aggressive posture.

Ralph Collier, founder of the Shark Research Committee, told The Orange County Register the shark is unlikely to be a problem for the Ocean Festival crowds because it's belly is already full.

“They can always leave the whale satiated and full and they’ll just cruise around and they might cruise by the shoreline. Or they will go to deeper water and that will be that,” he told the newspaper. “Their attention is going to be on the whale. They are worried about that."

Collier said the fresh scarring on the shark's head may have been from a battle with another shark over the carcass.

“When it raises its head, you can see the white scrapes,” he told the Register. “They could be upper teeth from another white shark. They establish hierarchy when they come upon something like this.”

In 2016, a huge dead whale washed ashore near San Onofre, and it had to be cut up and hauled away.

It's not unusual for authorities to have to drag the same carcass out to sea repeatedly thanks to a stubborn current. In 2012, Seal Beach Lifeguards had to drag the same whale out three times. Each time, one poor diver had to jump in and tie a rope around the bloated corpse.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report. File Photo:Credit: SeaTops / imageBROKER/Shutterstock