Shark Week at the Cove

 

The following is an email that I sent out on July 29, 2016 with a Prelog and Prolog added for the reader to put the story in context.

 

Prelog:  Since moving to San Diego in 2001, I have been swimming with friends at La Jolla bay.  At first the swims were during the summer to break the training boredom of swimming pools.  After a while, we started to swim year-round.  For sure every Friday morning before work and during the summer usually another on Monday or Tuesday.  La Jolla is a wonderful place to swim because it is protected from boats and during the summer, the city places buoys out there for the swimmers.  There is a ball buoy ¼ and ½ mile measured from the Cove.  There are 6 more can buoys set up to create a “lane” or rectangle leading out to the measured buoys.  Somewhere around 2010, the harbor seals started to take over the La Jolla cove.  They were really fun to swim with but they really leave the beach and rocks smelling really bad.  (see another story called “Bestest Swim Day”) From that year forward, we switched our swim start from the La Jolla Shores to avoid getting sick from swimming in the water near the Cove.  Fortunately, the distance to the ½ mile buoy is nearly the same in either direction.  Our typical swim is around 1 ½ mile round trip.

Inevitably, when telling folks that we swim quite regularly in the ocean, the first thing everyone asks is, “What about the sharks?”  It’s a reasonable question.  Something primal in us that loathes the thought of sharks.  Probably because it’s as close to the Boogie Man as it gets.  Sharks are silent, come out of no-where and bam! You are what’s for dinner!  The truth is most of the sharks are no problem in the Pacific Ocean.  Typically, we see Leopard Sharks in July and August.  Leopard Sharks do get up to about six feet but are shy.  The thing is, anytime a shark gets to be as big as a swimmer, everyone and anyone will to show it a bit more respect.  I suppose the same is true when you see a 20 pound puppy as opposed to a 100 pound German Sheppard.

 

Finally, just to completely frame the story, sometimes in the late Fall, we would be swimming over the kelp fields and we could see the ‘real deal’ shark patrolling the bottom about 20 -30 feet below.  Just the way a serious shark swims to and fro stands out from all the other things moving about down there.  We called this “Andy’s shark”.  Andy and I were on a swim and we were about 90 feet apart on the way “home” or headed back to the beach.  When we got out, Andy said, “Did you see that shark?”  I instantly knew which shark he was talking about because I had detected it but the shark hardly seemed interested in swimmers way above its head.  Over the years, we would probably see the same shark about two- to three times a year.  As long as he left us alone, we went on our business and left him alone.

To make the story a little easier to put in context I have added bits in italics

Sharks gave me the Willies this morning.  

 

A few things got my attention this morning:

Over the La Jolla deep water canyon, I swam over at least seven of the meanest looking sharks I’ve ever seen.  These sharks looked like they were patrolling mode, like a dog sniffing the ground hot on a scent.  The sharks were definitely not passing through with a sense of direction.   Water visibility was a maximum of 15 ft which felt like 7 feet.  Normally if we see a shark, it is a loner.  This is the only time I have ever seen more than one in some sort of pack, in fact seven!. This school of sharks basically swam from one end of my view to the other one by one disappearing into the murky waters.   After seeing the first shark my nerves were on high alert.  After seeing several more, I didn’t know what to do.

 

I continued swimming after all, did I have any other options?  I was just getting ready to get back into my rhythm when I saw my creepy visitors again. At first it was a grey shadow, zig zagging down at a depth near the limits of my visibility. Then a few more and they kept coming!  Trying to assess what should be my level of concern, I reasoned, was this possibly a whole other pack?  Or was this the same pack on another recon pass to see if I was towing dead mackerel or possibly something that would suffice until they found a more suitable breakfast?  My mind raced to answer the question, either answer was not a desirable outcome.  I felt the hair in my swim cap start to stand up if that is even possible.

 

Curiously, despite being with a group of eight swimmers, I noticed that no one else stopped or seemed the least bit concerned.  I could only conclude that the group had plenty of guts or no one else had seen these sharks.  After not seeing the sharks again for 300 yards I started to settle down a bit as I approached the ½ mile buoy.

 

The first person I spoke to was Brad at the ½ buoy.  He and I both stared at each other for a moment and he went first, “Holy cow!  Did you see those sharks?" Brad said.  For a moment I was glad that I was not the only one who saw the sharks but having someone else confirm the dire news was not comforting at all either. 

 

I looked around and the rest of the group was drifting away from the buoy about 20 yards from me.  Like a script from a bad movie, I turned back only to see Brad swimming away into the deep end (out to sea instead of to the next buoy) by his lonesome.  I remember thinking, “where the heck is he going?”

I swam over to the rest of the group, (Grant, Carl, Alick, Terri, Marion, Suzanne) who were treading water and casually chatting it up.  I arrived next to Grant and said under my voice, “Did you see the sharks out there?”  He hardly flinched so I didn’t take it any further.  For a moment, I reserved any more conversation and listened to what the rest of the group was chattering about.  I didn’t hear any concern in their voices at all.  It was the usual conversation that happens a hundred times, “Where do you want to swim to next?”

 

Someone said, "Hey let’s do Tour de Buoys" (to mix things up, instead of swimming between the two round buoys, we occasionally zig zag to the can buoys on either side)  In my mind, I was a bit shocked.   I thought they were being pretty brave considering that there was a pack sharks out there.  Perhaps more than one pack even!  In conversation after our swim, Terri mentioned that she thought she saw a shark but without a sure confirmation, she wrote it off.

 

So, the group headed off to do a swim around more buoys.  I set out with them scanning the dark water below me the whole time.  After about 400 meters, we reached the first can buoy.  Everyone was still pretty energetic to swim to the next buoy another 400 meters away and even farther away from the beach.  I was baffled by the bravery that the girls were showing.  Frankly, I thought to myself, perhaps I should suck it up a bit more if I was the only one worrying about the sharks.  

Everyone was just getting ready to swim into deeper water to the offshore buoy when I said, "Hey, I think we better head due East. (head back to the beach not out to sea which was west and the direction we would’ve been going.)"  Everyone gave me that "Huh?" look since normally the group decision was the winning vote.   Then one of the girls asks "Why?  Why swim back?".  I was thinking up a politically correct answer.  The kind of answer that doesn’t make everyone panic.  My pause before answering gave them time to put words in my mouth.

Terri said, "He is cold."

Marion, who always is planning to race someplace says, "Jimbo's tapering."

They were all still trying to figure it out when I said, "No. I think it is just a good idea to swim home." (By now, with no one else being the least bit concerned I realized that no one else must’ve seen the sharks other than Brad who decided to swim off in another direction)

Grant piped in and said, "Jimbo saw some sharks."

There was a long pause as they thought about it.  No one even bothered to ask any more questions after that.  All I could see was some very wide unblinking eyes inside all those goggles.

The whole group almost simultaneously said, "Ya let’s get back!"  And without delay, they all started to swim back towards the beach over a half mile away.

 

Within 10 yards I saw another two sharks under me.

Within another 10 yards I saw two more sharks under me.  I know my heart was starting to thump harder.

 

If you heard the thoughts in my head as we swam over the canyon, I might have said a bad word. (for most of our swim, we are in about 30 feet of water but there is a canyon that drops to over 100ft.  Of course, no light is reflected back up from the canyon making it a literal dark abyss) My mind continued to race.  I actually thought that if needed, the draw string from my suit could be used for a tourniquet. 

 

In all these years of swimming, I don’t think I have seen Marion and Terri swim so fast.  They were in close and were right on my 3 and 9 o’clock the whole thirty minutes back to the beach.

 

The group of swimmers drifted a little north of us as we swam back.  Terri, Marion and I stopped a few times but you guys kept slipping left by a few degrees rudder.

 

At one of the stops, Marion looks at me wide-eyed and says, "There's nothing dangerous out here is there?"

Not wanting to tell a lie, I replied "There is always something dangerous out here."  Without hesitation, she started to immediately swimming!

 

We made decent time, perhaps record time even, getting back to the beach for sure.

 

Just before standing in knee deep water, Terri and I saw a leopard shark, the shy sharks.  Those things zip so fast out of the field of view that she exclaimed, "There's another one!"

Being relieved to be standing on solid ground, I smiled and said, “Where?!”

 

>>>GGGG\\\G>>

 

I had to save this for last as the best line from the morning was from Brad, who as far as I could tell was swimming nearly the whole time by himself.  After meeting Brad halfway, he told me, “When I saw them (the seven sharks), I DOVE DOWN to take a look and there were so many!"

 

“Dang!” I was thinking, 'You DOVE DOWN to check out the sharks?!" I think it echoed in my head, “He dove down???”  Wow, either Brad totally didn’t recognize that they were sharks at first due to the visibility or he has balls of steel!

 

Post log:  Grant being the information man decided to research the shark sighting.  Apparently, very few sharks travel in packs.  Of the few that do, the one that fit the description the best is called a Seven Gill.  Here is an image of a Seven Gill Shark:  Imagine seeing seven of these big boys on your swim.