{"id":2584,"date":"2010-12-13T10:05:25","date_gmt":"2010-12-13T18:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mlmlblog.wordpress.com\/?p=2584"},"modified":"2010-12-13T10:05:25","modified_gmt":"2010-12-13T18:05:25","slug":"one-day-while-surfing-a-white-shark-encounter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/2010\/12\/13\/one-day-while-surfing-a-white-shark-encounter\/","title":{"rendered":"One Day While Surfing… A White Shark Encounter"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Paul catches a shark-free wave.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

by Paul Tompkins, Phycology Lab<\/p>\n

The gulls first caught my attention, a small flock in a tight swarm above the waves just beyond my surfboard. Others floated on the surface below.\u00a0 Suddenly the sea below them erupted, and the birds on the surface took flight.\u00a0 A frothy pink spray of water shot into the air; there was blood in the water. As the water calmed the gulls swooped and dove, feeding. A few seconds later the scene repeated itself, another violent splash of bloody water.\u00a0 My instincts were screaming, telling me turn and paddle in, to get out of the water.<\/p>\n

My curiosity got the better of me, and I sat transfixed as something was being ripped to pieces only a few hundred yards away.\u00a0 Other gulls were making a beeline to join in the feast, and the flock grew.\u00a0 I watched the attack for another minute, until at last a large black fin broke the horizon and my suspicions were confirmed.\u00a0 This was no sea lion or orca, but a large white shark, eating lunch.<\/p>\n

I swung towards the beach, catching my last wave on the way in.\u00a0 As I crested the dunes to get a better vantage, I saw the shark hit twice more. I ran to the parking lot to grab my binoculars.\u00a0 By the time I looked back to sea, the gulls had stopped flying, all were swimming on the surface. I peered through the lenses for a few more minutes, but the attack had ended.\u00a0 I walked back down to my car, relieved that I had been a witness to a raw display of nature\u2019s brutality, rather than an unwilling participant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Paul Tompkins, Phycology Lab The gulls first caught my attention, a small flock in a tight swarm above the waves just beyond my surfboard. Others floated on the surface below.\u00a0 Suddenly the sea below them erupted, and the birds on the surface took flight.\u00a0 A frothy pink spray of water shot into the air; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":291,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[268],"class_list":["post-2584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-sharks"],"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"MLML Student Life","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/291"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2584\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}