A strange scene unfolded in the coastal Los Angeles town of Hermosa Beach on Wednesday.
Onlookers on the Hermosa Beach pier watch a fisherman hook a juvenile great white shark. Then, when it washed ashore, the angler stripped off to his underwear, untied his fishing line, grabbed the baby shark by its tail and took it back to sea.
It was all caught on camera.
and Los Angeles TimesLocal Hermosa native Alexandra Garry witnessed the scene. She recalled:
“I thought, ‘Oh, this is so weird, they must have gotten something really big.’ I thought it might have been a big tuna, nothing but a shark. The next thing I knew, one of the fishermen was half-naked, down to his underwear, in the water trying to get the hook out.”
According to the video, a rescue truck drove up and the fisherman stripped naked, pulled the hook out of the shark’s mouth, and rather bravely tried to help the shark get back into the water and continue on its way.
The process was difficult; the shark was nearly dead after stranding.
Gary added: “It’s really sad because the shark doesn’t look like it’s moving.”
But luckily, once the shark is fully back in its natural habitat, it begins to gain momentum, darting through the shallows before returning to the deep.
this era Caught up with fisherman, 20-year-old Kevin Phan.
“I didn’t intentionally target white sharks because I know the state of California law says you can’t target them at all,” he said. “When I saw the great white shark, my brain immediately went into action and I tried to free it as quickly as possible.”
RELATED: Newport Beach 8-foot great white shark scare triggers summer shark warning
It comes after lifeguards closed a mile-wide area of ​​water for several hours after a shark was reportedly seen circling a surfer south of Newport Beach.
That event, combined with unusually warm waters and an impending Super El Niño, prompted experts to issue warnings:
“About a month ago we started seeing baby white sharks that were about four and a half feet long, which was really early,” said Dr. Chris Lowe of the Shark Lab. “The simple explanation for this is that the water is really warm right now, unusually warm for this time of year. So based on that, we’re predicting it’s going to be a very sharky summer.”
RELATED: Giant great white shark stranded on beach (Video)
This article was originally published by Surfer on April 2, 2026 and first appeared in the News section. Click here to add Surfer as a preferred source.