It\u2019s poised to be an exceptionally sharky season, this summer, in Southern California.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what the experts are saying, and it appears that their predictions are already coming to fruition, as over the weekend, fishermen hooked over 20 sharks in one single day off the Hermosa Beach Pier. And the fishing frenzy comes with a bit of controversy.<\/p>\n
One local South Bay realtor heard the news, and took to Instagram to question the shark haul. Were they actually mako sharks, like the fishermen claimed? Were they chumming the waters? See below to hear more from realtor Annie Hartley.<\/p>\n
Captioning her video, Hartley wrote:<\/p>\n
\u201cFeel like going for a dip??<\/p>\n
\u201cA small group of fishermen caught over 20 sharks yesterday off the pier. All were between 6-9 ft and although they claim to be accidentally caught makos, experts claim these are actually great whites!<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes this need to be monitored more? Certain restrictions on bait? After one \u2018accidental\u2019 shark pull, fisherman leaves for the day?<\/p>\n
\u201cAre people now seeing this and coming here hoping for the excitement of catching sharks?\u201d<\/p>\n
One commenter wrote: \u201cThis is concerning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Related: Great White Shark Hooked off Hermosa Beach Pier (Video)<\/a><\/p>\n The shark haul on Saturday off the Hermosa Beach Pier was broken by the local rag, Easy Reader News<\/a>. In their report, they noted that the fishermen believed they were hooking makos, which are legal to catch. However, they spoke with Keith Poe, \u201ca nationally recognized expert on sharks,\u201d who thought they might\u2019ve been juvenile great whites.<\/p>\n It\u2019s illegal, in California, to catch great whites off piers. Per Easy Reader:<\/p>\n \u201cPoe said Great Whites and Makos can be distinguished by their fins. The trailing edge of a Great White\u2019s dorsal (top) fin is serrated. A Mako\u2019s dorsal is smooth. The Great White\u2019s pectoral fins (side fins) are black. A Mako\u2019s pectoral fins are white, Poe said.\u201d<\/p>\n All of this comes after the heroic and unusual scene from a few weeks ago, when 20-year-old Kevin Phan accidentally hooked a juvenile great white shark from the Hermosa Beach Pier<\/a>, then stripped down to his skivvies, and helped free the animal.<\/p>\n Afterwards, Phan went viral.<\/p>\n Wonder where the fishermen from this past weekend got the idea? Suspicious?<\/p>\n Related: Newport Beach 8ft Great White Scare Triggers Sharky Summer Warning<\/a><\/p>\n This story was originally published by Surfer<\/a> on Apr 13, 2026, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Surfer as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s poised to be an exceptionally sharky season, this summer, in Southern California. That\u2019s what the experts are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[255386,255384,255387,112354,255383,255385,79,31641,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-583020","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-annie-hartley","9":"tag-coming-to-fruition","10":"tag-fishing-frenzy","11":"tag-great-whites","12":"tag-hermosa-beach-pier","13":"tag-mako-sharks","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-southern-california","16":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}