Malibu had an exceptionally sharky weekend.
Footage captured offshore shows an estimated 12-foot great white shark feeding on a dead whale carcass near the Malibu Pier, tearing chunks of blubber from the floating remains with the Santa Monica Mountains and Malibu coastline clearly visible behind it.
Take a peak at the footage, linked here, and below.
Another angle is considerably more unnerving.
Filmed from a small boat, the white shark leaves the carcass and cruises directly toward the vessel, its broad head and unmistakable silhouette becoming increasingly clear beneath the surface before it passes nearby.
See that one, linked here, and below.
The encounter comes amid an extraordinary year for sharks along Southern California.
In August, filmmaker Carlos Gauna — The Malibu Artist — filmed great whites near the same pier. “I expect there will be more in the coming weeks,” Gauna said at the time. “The biggest difference I’m seeing is that they are around year round more often now.”
Turns out, he wasn’t wrong.
Even more remarkably, the whale-feeding footage was reportedly captured the same day a kayaker was bitten by a shark near Paradise Cove, only several miles up the Malibu coastline.
That incident began when the fisherman hooked what authorities believe was a shortfin mako. While attempting to release it, the shark bit him.
Related: Kayaker Hospitalized After Shocking Shark Attack Off Paradise Cove in Malibu
Lifeguard Alex Buford said it then “came back and knocked him off the boat,” before biting his leg again. The fisherman was hospitalized; his current condition has not been publicly disclosed.
Southern California’s increase in shark sightings hasn’t exactly surprised scientists.
“It is gearing up to be a sharky summer,” Dr. Chris Lowe, director of Cal State Long Beach’s Shark Lab, predicted back in March. Lowe pointed to unusually warm ocean temperatures and developing El Niño conditions.
By August, he was even more explicit: “It’s just going to get busier as the summer and fall wears on.”
Still, whale carcasses naturally attract large scavengers, and the spectacle does not mean the shark was hunting humans nearby.
Quite the opposite.
For a 12-footer, several tons of free whale blubber is an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Related: Watch: Woman Swimming 900 Miles Down California Coast Encounters Great White Shark
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