NOTES / PETE THOMAS : Abalone Diver Can’t Forget Bite of Shark

It has been two weeks since Bryan Hillenburg was attacked by a great white shark while diving for abalone off Northern California, and while he feels fortunate to have escaped, he says he is haunted by the shark.

“It’s like an obsession,” Hillenburg, who is deaf, told the Associated Press through a typed computer conversation from his San Jose apartment. “I see it so clearly. It just repeats over and over.”

He is recovering from the bite and 3 1/2 hours of surgery, in which 50 staples were inserted into his left leg.

Doctors also removed three teeth that the shark left behind, including one lodged in Hillenburg’s bone.

He was surfacing after a dive in Shelter Cove, north of San Francisco, and was putting an abalone in a diving bag when he felt the bite.

“It pulled my leg and foot out of the water,” he said. “I saw the shark’s mouth with its ugly teeth. It was awful. I couldn’t believe it.”

The shark tugged at Hillenburg’s leg before letting go and swimming away.

Hillenburg’s diving partner and roommate, 32-year-old Michael Burns of San Jose, saw the attack and contacted three other divers, who took them both ashore.

It was the 73rd recorded attack by a great white in California since 1953, said John McCosker, a shark expert at Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco.

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Add great whites: Scientists say there has been an increase in activity off the Northern California coast but stress that there is nothing unusual about the phenomenon.

Ken Goldman, who does extensive research with great whites, primarily at the Farallon Islands outside the Golden Gate, said there have been reported sightings recently of shark attacks on harbor seals and sea lions off Stinson Beach and Tomales Bay.

“In the late summer, they seem to make their way up the coast, feeding on seals and sea lions,” Goldman said. “And in the fall, when the elephant seals arrive at the Farallons, they tend to follow them to the Farallons.”

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While the focus has temporarily shifted from the tuna south of the border to the albacore run off Central California, it should be pointed out that anglers aboard San Diego overnight boats are enjoying outstanding fishing for yellowfin tuna.

As if that weren’t enough, those aboard the Holiday on a recent 1 1/2-day trip that ended Tuesday morning got a rubbery sort of bonus when the crew put out the sea anchor and turned on the lights.

Giant squid measuring “from your elbow to your fingers” flocked to the lights by the thousands and anglers spent the night bouncing them aboard, captain Steve Giffin said.

Then the crew spent the day cleaning the boat, which Giffin said turned black from all the ink squirting.

Locally, boats from Oceanside to L.A. Harbor are finding sizable schools of yellowfin tuna at the outer banks, about 70 miles offshore.

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Thinking of giving fishing a try? If so, Saturday might be a good day, given that a fishing license will not be required of anyone wetting a line in Southland waters.

Free Fishing Day, one of two every year, is designed to get more people involved in the sport.

To that end, Department of Fish and Game “interpretive specialists” will conduct clinics from 8 a.m. to noon at Lincoln Park in Boyle Heights and from 7:30-noon at Santa Fe Reservoir in Irwindale.

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The Finlandia Vodka Southern California Clean Water Challenge, a 36-mile kayak and outrigger canoe race from Pacific Palisades to Long Beach, will begin Saturday at noon in front of Gladstone’s restaurant.

Donations will be accepted and proceeds will go to Heal the Bay.

The paddle to Parker’s Lighthouse at Shoreline Village is expected to take the top finishers more than five hours.