Off Huntington Pier : ‘Jaws Jr.’ Captured

A rare catch of a great white shark was logged Monday by a sports fishing boat less than two miles off Huntington Beach, where more than 100,000 holiday bathers were enjoying the last big swimming day of summer.

The small, 108-pound shark--the same species as in the movie “Jaws”--was caught by Jack Kemnitz, captain of the 65-foot vessel Thunderbird at 11:30 a.m. Monday. It was brought ashore at Newport Beach and weighed before an awed throng of children and adults.

“We were about a mile and half off the Huntington Beach Pier,” Kemnitz said. “We had tossed out some chum (fish cut in small pieces), and he rose to that. Then I baited a hook with a fish on 100-pound test line and he ate the bait and I had him. It took about 15 minutes to bring him in.

“Craig and Steve gaffed him, and we put him on board. We were surprised because you just don’t see many white sharks in these waters. They are very, very rare.”

Craig Jacobs, 20, of Huntington Beach, who with Steve McCarty, 22, of Tustin, helped Kemnitz bring in the catch, said they didn’t expect to find a great white on the end of the hook. “I thought it was something strange,” Jacobs said.

But the fish, which even in death had a fearful-looking mouth, definitely was a great white.

“Oh, yeah, it’s a white shark,” said Jason Blower, who was at the Balboa Pavilion dock in Newport Beach when the Thunderbird arrived about 4 p.m. Monday.

“My job for the state Fish and Game Department is to catch sharks in these waters, tag them and release them. I know sharks. And this is a white shark. It’s very unusual for a white shark to be in warm waters like this. It’s the first one I’ve seen in eight years.”

Blower, of Newport Beach, was among the spectators behind the Balboa Angling Club when the shark was hoisted for an official weigh-in on the dock. About 25 others in the crowd, including some wide-eyed children, watched, trance-like. After years of seeing movies of fake white sharks and rubber novelty items, here was a real relative of “Jaws.”

As Kemnitz opened the shark’s mouth to show off its razor-like teeth, a few in the crowd moved closer to touch it.

“Watch it! Watch it!” yelled Helen Smith, secretary of the Balboa Angling Club. “(Sharks) have reflex actions even in death, and you could get hurt very badly.”

The spectators moved their hands back quickly. They looked at Smith to see if she was joking. She was not. They backed off.

Smith, who was weighing the catch, said that while great whites are rare in Southern California, “commercial boats catch them from time to time.” She said at least one 2,000-pound white shark had been in a commercial catch in Southern California. But she agreed that great whites are rarely seen near the Southern California shoreline.

Shark Attacks Recalled

Still, many great white attacks have taken place off California coasts. As recently as Aug. 15, a surfer escaped with a cut hand after one chomped on his board off Tunitas Beach in Northern California. Episodes of swimmers being attacked and killed by white sharks include the death of one scuba diver in La Jolla Cove in 1959.

According to the book, “Natural History of Sharks,” great whites sometimes grow to a length of more than 15 feet and can weigh more than 3,500 pounds.

The fishing experts agreed that the Labor Day catch was just a baby shark. “This is not only a baby, but a fairly new baby, because this is the size of white shark when it’s born,” Kemnitz said. Unborn sharks often cannibalize each other in the mother’s womb.

The Thunderbird, a vessel rented through Davey’s Locker outlet at Balboa Pavilion, had 30 Labor Day fishermen aboard for the catch. “Everybody on board just stopped and watched when I got the shark,” Kemnitz said.

He is convinced that at least one other white shark is still in the Huntington Beach waters: “I’m sure that the mother fish is nearby. The mother would be nearby a baby the size of the one we caught.”

As spectators’ eyes bulged at the thought, Kemnitz said: “Thank God it’s the end of summer.”