My Town Monday: A Great White Shark Visits San Diego, CA

This is a great white shark.
(image from www.greatwhitesharks.com. I did not take this photo from the beach with my brand new Motorola Razr Maxx.) 

 La Jolla Shores, one of our local beaches, was closed today because a 14-foot great white shark was spotted a mere 50 yards from the beach. Apparently, a female lifeguard was paddleboarding when she saw the shark next to her. She was described as "distraught" when she got to shore and was relating the experience. (Personally, I would've been beyond hysterical.) Several other people also saw the interloper or at least saw that infamous triangular dorsal fin.

Can I just say that I was at this very beach last week with our company from Oklahoma, Child #3 and Child #4. In fact, I was thrilled that Child #3 was out in the waves, boogie boarding with Child #4!

 The beach will re-open this morning (Tuesday), assuming it's safe. So....how do we know it's safe? Well, if our very vigilant (and they truly are) lifeguards don't detect any sharks swimming around in our waters.

That got me thinking. Do we know anything about the habits of great whites who come to visit our fair city? As in, do they stay in the area? For a day, a week, a month? Buy discount tickets for the zoo, SeaWorld or Legoland? Make plans for a family reunion? (presumably not as they're pretty solitary).

 I Googled, but didn't learn much about the great white's habits with regards to San Diego. I did, however, find a few interesting facts. Here they are:

 -A great white's eyeballs roll back in its head when it attacks. This is to protect the eyes.

 -We make an inappropriate meal for a great white. This is because their digestive system is too slow for a creature with our high ratio of bone to muscle and fat.

 -A nickname for the great white shark is...White Death. Da...da...da...da

 -Great whites have about 3,000 teeth.

 And....I have a favorite picture about sharks. It's very entertaining. I just re-read it last week. In case you can't decipher the title and author's name from the jpg: THE GREAT WHITE MAN-EATING SHARK: A CAUTIONARY TALE by Margaret Mahy

Hope you're all having a wonderful summer. I'm attempting to balance children, company, friends,  the gym, the garden, the house, the pets and a book due to Editor Wendy next month. You can imagine how all that's going!

 

 Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_white_shark
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/sharks/species/Greatwhite.shtml
http://www.great-white-shark.com/great-white-shark.html
www.10news.com
local NBC news