I am still not convinced this is not sly promotion of “Shark Week” programming, but a shark bumping a surfer this morning has prompted lifeguards to prohibit anyone from going into the waters off Huntington Beach for the rest of the day.
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Beach activities that do not involve going into the ocean can continue, according to marine safety officials.
The unidentified surfer was bumped by the shark, which was identified as being 5 to 8 feet long, about 8:45 a.m. at Beach Boulevard, a mile south of the pier, according to city Marine Safety Lt. Claude Panis. The boarder was able to paddle back ashore to safety and inform lifeguards what happened.
“He was bumped, which meets our criteria for aggressive behavior'' that justifies restricting access to the ocean, Panis told City News Service while adding no one was being allowed in the water from Beach Boulevard to the pier, which is city beach. But state parks officials were doing the same on their portion of the shore, he said.
Panis expects the ban to be lifted at 8 a.m. Saturday.
In the meantime, we're going to have to get a bigger boat.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.