Kevin Phan accidentally caught a great white off the Hermosa Beach Pier, then went to great lengths to make sure it was okay. Photos: KTLA//Screenshot
The waters off Southern California are a little more sharky than usual right now, and recently, a fisherman off Hermosa Beach accidentally caught a juvenile great white. While that’s certainly not a common occurrence, what the fisherman did next was even more of a surprise: he stripped down to his underwear, waded in, and cut the line before guiding the shark back out to sea.
According to KTLA, the fisherman, 20-year-old Kevin Phan, caught the shark a little after 9 a.m. on Wednesday morning.
“The kids were doing yoga on the beach,” Frank Paine, who saw the whole thing unfold, told KTLA. “Somebody yelled shark. And so these guys brought this shark in. You’re not supposed to hook them.”
For a few worrisome minutes, many of the onlookers thought the shark might be dead. As Phan struggled to free it from his line, though, it began to thrash around. Phan managed to position it towards the breaking waves and get it back in the water before raising his arms in triumph. The onlookers on the pier applauded his efforts.
The LA Times reported that Phan was actually fishing for thresher sharks — which are legal to catch — when the great white took the bait.
“I wasn’t intentionally targeting white sharks, because I know the rules of California state law, you can’t target them at all,” he explained. “When I saw the great white, my brain just clicked into action, and I tried to free it as quickly as I could.”
Juvenile great white sharks are frequently spotted in the shallower waters in the area, but they don’t pose much of a danger. They may, however, bite if they feel as though they are in danger. Researchers believe that Southern California shark sightings could skyrocket this year, due to warming waters and an incoming El Niño.
