Gruesome shark video near Half Moon Bay prompts warning

A shocking video of great white sharks devouring a whale off the California coast near Half Moon Bay prompted a warning for surfers and swimmers to avoid the area even as the holiday weekend approaches.

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Local drone operator Sam Rigling captured the video Thursday, June 25, at Martin’s Beach, a few miles south of Half Moon Bay, showing a deformed and dead whale floating in the ocean while as many as six different sharks devoured the carcass.

“It was kind of unbelievable,” Rigling said. “This was the first time I’ve ever seen a great white with my drone. I had no idea there were this many sharks out here.”

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Rigling’s video shows both young and adult sharks eating the whale, including footage of sharks violently whipping their heads back and forth as they pull blubber away. Rigling estimated that some of the sharks were over 14 feet long. 

This year has seen an outsized presence of great white sharks off California’s coast, with experts pointing to a marine heat wave as bringing the sharks back to California sooner and in larger numbers. Chris Lowe, the director of Cal State Long Beach’s Shark Lab, previously told SFGATE that signs were pointing toward it being a “sharky summer” for the state. 

Sharks eating dead whales is common behavior for California’s great whites, according to Lowe, who said sharks follow the whale migration looking for easy food.

“That’s probably one of the reasons adult great white sharks return to the California coast. It’s a huge meal, and it’s free,” Lowe told SFGATE on Monday. “They just have to find it. They don’t have to do anything for it.”

Lowe said in one earlier documented case, a 16-foot shark was seen eating a whale off the coast of Newport years ago for 12 hours, eating as much as 600 pounds of meat.

“It was so full, it looked like it had swallowed a Volkswagon,” Lowe said. “It was like [in] a food coma. It would barely come up and then would sink,” Lowe said. “When you think about how important that food source could be, it’s pretty impressive.”

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Lowe said the smell of floating whale carcasses can attract sharks from miles away — he compared it to a human walking past a bakery — and warned that people should not swim or surf near dead animals. A shark eating a carcass can become defensive against other sharks also dining away and could mistake a human as another animal coming for the free meal.

“If there are dead seals or dead whales in the water, you should definitely find a different place to swim or surf,” Lowe said. “You just don’t want to be taken as a competitor.”

Rigling, who was born and raised in Pacifica, said the shark sighting and increased whale presence will keep him out of the water for at least a few more weeks and that his surfer friends are also staying away. 

But apparently not everyone is avoiding the area — there were surfers in the water when he was taking the original video.

“There was someone surfing when I showed up. He didn’t seem too worried about it,” Rigling said. “And I saw someone yesterday surfing there.”