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<\/p>\nThe crowd atop the Hermosa Beach Pier watched with bated breath as a local fisherman, stripped down to his underwear and armed with only a pair of scissors, waded into the water in an attempt to free a juvenile great white shark.<\/p>\n
Local resident Alexandra Garry, who recorded the rescue mission on her phone, said she was walking her dog around 9:20 a.m. Wednesday when she saw two fishermen struggling to reel in a very heavy catch.<\/p>\n
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A fisherman used scissors and his bare hands to free a juvenile great white shark caught on a fishing line by the Hermosa Beach Pier around 9:20 a.m. on Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (Video courtesy of Alexandra Garry).<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s so weird, they must have gotten something really big,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cI thought perhaps it was a big tuna, really anything except a shark.\u201d <\/p>\n
But as the catch got closer to shore, it became evident that the men had accidentally hooked a juvenile great white shark.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next thing I knew, one of the fishermen was half naked, stripped down to his underwear, and was in the water trying to get the hook out,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
That fisherman, 20-year-old Kevin Phan, wasted no time in getting up close and personal with the struggling young shark. Wielding a pair of scissors, he cut off the fishing line and then used his bare hands to try to drag his sharp-toothed friend back into the sea.<\/p>\n
Phan, who has been an avid fisherman for five years, said he had been hoping to possibly catch a thresher shark, which are legal to fish, but did not expect to wind up with a white shark on the end of his line.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t intentionally targeting white sharks, because I know the rules of California state law, you can\u2019t target them at all,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I saw the great white, my brain just clicked into the action, and I tried to free it as quickly as I could.\u201d <\/p>\n
At first, things did not look good, and the dozen or so people watching from the pier began to despair. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really sad, because the shark didn\u2019t look like it was moving a bunch,\u201d Garry said. <\/p>\n
But shortly after the line was removed, the shark regained movement and started thrashing about in an attempt to get into deeper water. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a little bit scary, because I have never dealt with a white shark before and the teeth were a bit intimidating,\u201d said Phan. <\/p>\n
Expert shark drone photographer Carlos Gauna<\/a> said that juvenile great white sharks present little danger to humans<\/a> as they don\u2019t view us as a food source. The rare exception, he noted, is when fishing is involved as sharks may bite as a defensive measure.<\/p>\n \u201cThe only time I ever get a little bit worried about a juvenile white shark possibly hurting somebody inadvertently is when there\u2019s fishing activity going on next to swimmers,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a precedence for that; we\u2019ve had a shark bite occur because of a direct connection to fishing right nearby.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2014, a 7-foot-long great white shark bit a man<\/a> swimming near the Manhattan Beach Pier. That attack began when a person fishing hooked the shark and spent more than 30 minutes trying to reel it in, making the shark grow agitated.<\/p>\n Fortunately, on Wednesday morning both human and shark survived the encounter. <\/p>\n A juvenile great white shark swims away after being freed from a fishing line on Hermosa Beach.<\/p>\n (Alexandra Garry)<\/p>\n After a few minutes of struggling to unbeach the shark, Phan hoisted the creature by the tail and successfully pushed it into a crashing wave. <\/p>\n \u201cAfter I released it, it swam off super strong, and I was so glad,\u201d Phan said. <\/p>\n He raised his fists above his head in a sign of victory as onlookers cheered.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen it swam out, everyone on the pier clapped,\u201d Garry said. \u201cIt was a very much needed moment of humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n Chris Lowe, director of the Cal State Long Beach Shark Lab, explained to The Times<\/a> last week that he is expecting a surge in shark sightings this summer due to unseasonably warm waters in Southern California. That warming trend kicked off amid March\u2019s record-breaking heat wave<\/a> and is expected to intensify during this year\u2019s strong El Ni\u00f1o cycle.<\/p>\n \u201cThe last time we had a strong El Ni\u00f1o was in 2015 and 2016, and we had a lot of juvenile white sharks hanging around early,\u201d Lowe said. \u201cSo I\u2019m expecting this year to be a sharky summer.\u201d<\/p>\n Last Thursday, lifeguards in Orange County temporarily shut down a stretch of Newport Beach where an 8-foot-long great white shark was spotted circling a surfer.<\/a> <\/p>\n L.A. County Lifeguards spokesperson Kealiinohopono \u201cPono\u201d Barnes said Wednesday that there had been a recent uptick in great white shark sightings reported near the Manhattan Beach Pier. <\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775209453_374_.jpeg\")
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