Tag: santa barbara

Great white shark ‘Tough Guy’ pings near infamous Ca. surf spot

A tagged great white shark nicknamed Tough Guy has been tracked to an area where at least three attacks on surfers have occurred since 2010.

A tagged great white shark nicknamed Tough Guy has been tracked to an area where at least three attacks on surfers have occurred since 2010.

The male shark, which measured 12 feet when he was tagged in November 2021, pinged this week off Minuteman Beach, 20 miles north of Surf Beach.

Both are on Vandenberg Air Force Base, north of Santa Barbara. Both are open to the public.

Fatal shark attacks occurred at Surf Beach almost exactly two years apart in October 2010 and 2012. A nonfatal bite, also attributed to a white shark, occurred in the same area in 2014.

Tough Guy was tagged by the Marine Conservation Science Institute, run by Michael Domeier.

On Tuesday, Domeier posted Tough Guy’s position via Instagram and asked his followers: “Who can name this notorious beach? Our tagged great white shark, Tough Guy, pinged from here a few days ago.”

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Some of Domeier’s followers are familiar with the area. One correctly guessed Minuteman Beach, while others knew of the area’s shark-attack history.

“The month of October has a reputation at Surf Beach,” one follower wrote, adding crying-face emojis for emphasis.

“Sharktober is real around here,” reads another comment.

Vandenberg is about 30 miles north of Point Conception, a feeding area for white sharks and a tagging area for the Marine Conservation Science Institute.

Great white sharks tagged by MCSI off California and Mexico can be tracked by the public via the Expedition White Shark App.

As of Wednesday morning, Tough Guy’s position off Minuteman Beach had not changed.

–Generic white shark image courtesy of Michael Domeier

‘Massive’ great white shark visits popular Santa Barbara surf spot

A researcher on Friday cautioned that a 17-foot great white shark was cruising just beyond the shore of El Capitan State Beach near Santa Barbara.

A researcher on Friday cautioned that a 17-foot great white shark was cruising just beyond the shore of El Capitan State Beach near Santa Barbara.

“She is not your everyday Southern California juvenile; she’s a massive adult that you should avoid,” Michael Domeier, Executive Director of the Marine Conservation Science Institute, stated via Instagram.

The white shark’s name is Poe Girl, named by Keith Poe, who tagged the shark in 2017 as part of an ongoing MCSI tagging and monitoring project.

Domeier’s Instagram post piqued the interest of his many followers, including surfers who had been riding waves at El Capitan on Friday.

“No way! I was just out there in the water and came in and told my friend I thought I saw a shark and he sent me this post,” one follower wrote. “I am about 99% sure I just saw her dorsal fin surface about 50 yards past the lineup.”

Another surfer claimed to have spotted a shark “with a dorsal fin the size of a traffic cone” and added, “The lonely other thing I thought it could be was an orca because no dolphin could be that big.”

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Another follower chimed in, “I’m more scared of the juvenile curious taste test than the adult who knows that we don’t have much meat on us.”

Answered Domeier: “Juvenile white sharks eat fish, stingrays and other sharks. Adult white sharks eat seals, sea lions and porpoise. Adults are more likely to bite a person than a juvenile.”

It seems, however, that any threat posed by Poe Girl has been somewhat alleviated. As of Saturday morning, according to the app, Poe Girl had moved considerably farther offshore.

But, of course, that does not mean that she won’t turn around for another visit.

–Note: The public can follow the movements of Poe Girl and dozens of other tagged sharks via the MCSI’s Expedition White Shark app.