Eyewitness describes shark encounter at Shell Beach this past weekend

Posted: Oct 25, 2010 4:55 PM by Steve Adamson
Updated: Oct 25, 2010 5:47 PM

After Friday's deadly shark attack near Surf Beach, some surfers say they saw a shark this weekend in the waters just off Shell Beach. A splashing noise caught their attention and they noticed a 3 to 4ft. fish that appeared to be jumping out of the water.

"We all realized that something had the fish, it wasn't just jumping...and it was being thrashed around and I saw the little gray head of the shark," said Dillon McGill who was surfering among a group of eight.

At first, they couldn't believe what they were seeing. "Then it pulled it under water and we all kinda looked at each other and we were like...yikes!!...and started paddling back into shore," said McGill.

Despite shark sighting signs now posted in the Pismo and Shell beach areas, surfers were out at Pismo today taking advantage of the breakers, with minimal concern for sharks.

Robby Diepersloot who lives in the Central Valley decided to come to Pismo Beach today for some surfing and when asked about his concern said, "not really, every once in a while we'll see seals, like today I saw three different seals go by us, and they say that sharks follow seals. I don't know, I'm not too worried about it."

A dead dead sea lion that had washed up on the Pismo shoreline today had some puncture wounds, but it's not known if they came in a shark attack.

Some long time local surfers believe it wont be surprising to hear about more shark sightings here at area beaches."

Cory Cornejo has been surfing the waters off the Central Coast for 30 years and says he thinks more shark sightings will become the norm here. "Well there's a lot more food in the water now. I mean when I was young, I never used to see sea lions out here like they are now...and now I see whole bowls of sea lions. When we've created a habitat for them with all the food in the water, there's going to be more and more shark hits nowadays."

" Dillon McGill added, "we know the risk is there, but you never think its going to happen to you."