CARPINTERIA (CBSLA) – A teenager recently captured video of very close encounter he had with a great white shark off the Santa Barbara County coastline near Carpinteria.
June 2021. (Credit: Jackson Krischer)
Sixteen-year-old Jackson Krischer says he was paddleboarding in an area known as Santa Claus Beach searching for sharks when a great white swam under his board. He captured the event on video.
The encounter wasn’t an accident. Krischer says he intentionally searches the area for sharks. He says he was terrified to be near them at first, but now he knows they aren’t trying to hurt him and they usually just swim away.
Krischer told CBSLA that he has been around sharks so many times that he can even recognize their tags and marks.
On June 12, the Santa Barbara County Fire Department posted drone video to social media showing five juvenile great white sharks swimming near the shoreline of Santa Claus Beach.
SBCFD spokesperson Mike Eliason says that the waters off Santa Claus Beach are “widely known to shark researchers as a nursery environment for the great whites.”
Five juvenile great white sharks swim just past the breaking waves at Santa Claus Beach near Carpinteria, CA on June 12, 2021. The area is well know by shark researchers as a nursery habitat for the great whites, as they feed off stingrays and other smaller prey. pic.twitter.com/3RipoiS3aQ
— SBCFireInfo (@EliasonMike) June 12, 2021
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