Sharks off the Beach

estevan

Guest
Took a guys trip the other week and tried night fishing from shore for the first time. We caught shovelnose, puffer fish, mullet, saltwater catfish and, to my surprise, a few baby sharks. We've caught sharks further out, but I didn't know they cruised the beaches too. Does anybody know what type of shark this is? We were fishing at Playa Miramar.
 

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One time I cruised my Jet ski into the main harbor to eat at Balboas we saw hundreds of small sharks, 12-15" long swimming in the water.
 
There are large sharks out there, I saw a 13ft Thresher shark pulled out in Cholla years ago.
I saw a 10-12ft shark swimming off of Pinto Point eating a lot of small fish that were schooling 3 years ago.
Yeah, I wish I would have grabbed my camera for that one. The Thresher's pic is on a wall in JJ's.
Great white sharks have been seen and tracked close to Penasco. Hammer heads migrate in the spring near Penasco.
Whale shark seen recently (not really a shark).
 
Thing is, smaller species like nurse sharks that are not aggressive sometimes cruise the shallower, warmer waters near the beach, while the evil ones stay in the deeper, colder waters out around bird island.
 

ernesto

Guest
I used to scuba dive with the Lobos years back. Lars, the divemaster dove multiple times a week for many years at Bird Island. He said he had never seen a shark at Bird Island but did witness some pangeros offloading a 12 ft Great White at La Pinta. The fishermen said they got it in deep water south of the island. Was it ever determined what got the hookah diver on that reef on the other side of the island a while back? I think the bull sea lions are more of a threat out there.
 

estevan

Guest
I've heard of tiger and hammerheads not too far out. The ones we caught had mouths on the bottom like nurse sharks. We caught the same species on a trip out to 50 mile reef a couple years ago and they told us they are sand sharks, but they're clearly not.
 
Comment on big sharks staying out in deeper water sounds good but I question it. Too many videos of big sharks being in close into many places with either warm or cold water
 
Estevan, to answer your question about the type of shark you caught, its likely one of the several species of smoothhound sharks. The second dorsal fin looks about equal size to the first and the lower lobe of the caudal fin is very small. Baby sharks can be difficult to identify so this is a guess.
 
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