Just two days after Surf Beach was reopened to the public, officials at Vandenberg Air Force Base closed it again—though, this time, it wasn’t because of snowy plovers.
A shark attacked a surfer one-quarter mile north of Wall Beach on Oct. 2 around 5:30 p.m., according to a statement from the base. The attack wasn’t fatal, but the shark bit the 28-year-old surfer—a government civilian employee at Vandenberg—in the knee and punctured the skin.
Vandenberg closed Surf, Wall, and Minuteman beaches until Oct. 5 at 4 p.m. A second set of shark attacks near Vandenberg made headlines on Oct. 3; this time it was kayakers.
According to the commenters on the Jurassic Sportfishing Facebook page, the attacks took place two to three hours apart. The first kayaker who was attacked was dumped out of the kayak after the shark rammed into the bottom of it. The second kayaker was also flipped out of the kayak and into the water, but in this instance, the shark actually bit the bottom of the hull twice and left teeth marks.
Both kayakers were rescued without injury.
Jurassic shared a video from kayaker Brad Rudolph—who watched the second attack happen—on its Facebook page.
“This is what happens in the ocean. It’s a natural thing that can occur when you step in their realm,” Jurassic said of the video.
“The shark was completely out of the water on the first hit,” Rudolph said in one of the post’s comments.
The kayakers believe it was a great white shark between 19 and 20 feet long.
Many of the commenters acknowledged that the area off Vandenberg’s section of the coast is known as great white shark territory. The beaches have a history of closures due to shark attacks; there were fatal attacks at Surf Beach in October 2010 and again in October 2012.
Tech. Sgt. Tyrona Lawson, a Vandenberg spokesperson, sent out an email in response to media inquiries, which said the shark that attacked the surfer is more than likely still in the area.
“Coastal California is home to a healthy great white shark population,” Lawson said. “Sharks live here.”
This article appears in Oct 9-16, 2014.
