2 ambitious paddlers in California went out searching for 10 great white sharks - They came back with this...
Ten great white sharks have been spotted swimming not far from the shores of southern California, prompting two ambitious beachgoers on Friday to grab their GoPros, hop on their paddleboards, and paddle out to where the sharks are swimming.
With cameras attached to their paddles, Courtney Hemerick and Joseph Trucksess captured up-close underwater footage of the sharks. The two estimated the sharks' length in comparison to their 12-foot boards and guessed they were roughly up to seven feet long, Trucksess told the Orange County Register. If his observations were correct, it means the sharks weren't fully grown (adults can be about 15 feet long).
The sharks have been hanging out in the Huntington Beach area, which is south of downtown Los Angeles, since April, when two were first spotted. The LA Times reports the young sharks have been feeding on stingrays up and down the coast.
Great whites are responsible for one-third to one-half of all shark attacks every year, according to National Geographic, yet these sharks seemed strangely unperturbed by the curious paddlers. Only three people worldwide were killed by sharks in 2014, and none occurred in the United States. Hemerick posted a video of their activities the next day, showing just how close the paddlers got to the rather unbothered sharks.
Watch the full video: