We should prob consider changing the narrative that NorCal is the sharks section of California. Seems like once a week or so, footage of a toothy nightmare surfaces off the coast of SoCal, and this week, that nightmare visits one-time surf capital of the world, San Clemente. Just a short paddle from T-Street, a quick stroll from …Lost HQ, a short drive from Trestles, lies the San Clemente Pier, near which this truck-sized shark posted up for a whale tasting menu on Thursday. Happy surfing, San Clemente!<doc-sep>The massive great white shark was having a mega feast. Passengers aboard a 23-foot fishing boat watched in awe, Thursday morning, July 19, as an adult great white shark, estimated at 17 feet long, chomped on its buffet: a dead whale carcass floating offshore less than a mile from the San Clemente pier. The National Geographic-like scene was documented on video by the crew on AllWater Charter out of Dana Point, a private fishing charter that was taking anglers out to sea. Start your day with the news you need from the Bay Area and beyond. Sign up for our new Morning Report weekday newsletter. Marc Levine, owner of AllWater Charter, said they first spotted the floating whale at about 10 a.m. “We knew what it was right when we saw it,” he said. Meanwhile, those aboard a nearby fishing boat reported they had seen a great white shark. Levine left the area, but another of his charter boats stayed with the whale, and reported the shark had returned — and Levine raced back to see the behemoth. “It was my first large great white. I grew up working on the water, I’ve spent about 25 years working on the water,” he said. “This was the first big one.” In the AllWater video, someone can be heard saying “Oh my Lord,” as the shark swims slowly near the boat. “Look at the bite marks on him!” one person says as the shark gets near. “Unbelievable,” says another voice in the video. Levine said he saw plenty of juveniles in the six-foot range hanging around Capistrano Beach last summer. But he was waiting for a moment like this. “It was surreal when I got the first shot of him, or her. It kind of didn’t hit me,” he said. “I kind of blacked out. It was just, an animal that size is not something you see, ever.” The whale carcass was first reported near the Dana Point Harbor jetty on Tuesday by a captain of Dana Wharf Whale Watching, who contacted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, according to Carla Mitroff, photographer for the charter company. On Wednesday, the Pacific Marine Mammal Center attempted a necropsy on the female whale, but was unable to determine a cause of death, before the carcass was hauled out to sea by county Harbor Patrol. Ryan Lawler, owner of Newport Coastal Adventure, shot down from Newport Harbor to see the shark as soon as he got word that it was off San Clemente on Thursday. “It had drifted back to the beach, and had a huge shark on it,” Lawler said. Lawler said he believes the deceased whale is a 28-foot juvenile. “The shark was not that much smaller than the whale,” he said. “It was pretty awesome. I had never seen a shark that big before.” One person described to Lawler the way the shark was tossing around the whale “like a rag doll.” San Clemente Marine Safety Officer Ian Burton said lifeguards were alerted to the whale carcass early Thursday morning by Pacific Marine Mammal Center. They were also contacted by the NOAA Stranding Network. He said he’ll have to get more accounts of the shark activity and watch video before determining any action that might be needed by lifeguards, but “there’s always safety concerns.” There’s also no word on whether the presence of the large shark will impact the Ocean Festival set for Saturday and Sunday in San Clemente. Ralph Collier, founder of the Shark Research Committee, said it’s most likely the shark will be too full to care about humans after its feast. “They can always leave the whale satiated and full and they’ll just cruise around and they might cruse by the shoreline. Or they will go to deeper water and that will be that,” he said. “Their attention is going to be on the whale. They are worried about that. “It looks like a good size little critter,” he said. Collier was especially interested in scarring on the shark’s head, which could have been from a conflict with other sharks to be the alpha during the feast. “When it raises its head, you can see the white scrapes,” he said, noting that they looked fresh on the video. “They could be upper teeth from another white shark. They establish hierarchy when they come upon something like this.” It’s not unusual to have three to five sharks hanging around trying to get part of the meal, he said. But the others most of the time won’t feed until the dominant one moves away for a break. Likewise, he said, it’s not unusual for a shark of this size to be so close to shore. “I’ve seen 17-foot white sharks on the other side of surf breaks,” he said. “This one is definitely an adult,” he added. Collier said great whites off California generally run from 800 to 1,000 pounds heavier than sharks found in other areas of the world, in part because there’s such a plentiful buffet of pinnipeds off the coast. He recalls a dead blue whale in the mid-2000s that was buried at San Onofre trails, drawing large sharks to the area. “I stood on the cliff and watched adult sharks coming in from a half a mile out,” he said. “You could see the slick from the decomposing whale when the tide was coming in … you could just see the sharks following it to the beach. They’d get as close as they could get to shore, swimming back and forth.” Related Articles 3 Bay Area kid-friendly activities to celebrate #SharkWeek Shark in the water? Check your app before going in California Instagram model’s shark-bite moment goes viral, but was it really a ‘social media injury?’ 5 things you might not know about sharks Rare double shark attack closes Florida beach; bites were just minutes apart Dealing with dead whales is no easy task. In 2016, a dead whale washed up at a popular surf spot, Lower Trestles, where it had to be chopped to pieces and hauled to a landfill. Lawler, of Newport Coastal Adventure, said he followed the lifeguards Thursday as they hauled the whale about 17 miles offshore, and saw no sign of the shark. The lifeguards then handed the whale off to a tow boat company to take it further away. For Lawler, an avid fisherman, the shark sighting was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. “It’s been something I’ve been waiting for my whole life,” he said. “We have all never seen this before, and this is our job. We are on the water every day.”<doc-sep>
Community Corner Watch: Massive Great White Feeds On Whale In San Clemente A 17-foot great white shark drew crowds when it chomped down on a dead whale near the San Clemente Pier. Reply 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. Monster Great White Shark!!! #danapoint #sanclemente #sanclementepier #allwatercharters @marc_allwater @newportcoastaladventure @abc7la @cbsla @ocregister A post shared by A post shared by AllWater / Charters & Rentals (@allwater_charters) on Jul 19, 2018 at 10:32am PDT "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.