Tug Boat Crew Gets Video Of Shark In San Francisco Bay
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) - A KPIX 5 viewer sent in a video of a rare shark sighting on San Francisco Bay Wednesday morning.
Peter Tomkins said he and his crew of his tug boat was at the Hyde Street Pier fueling up when they spotted the shark. They were not able to determine if it was a great white or another kind of shark.
KPIX 5 took the video to researchers at the Aquarium of the Bay.
"It was initially thought to be a great white. None of our biologists had a chance to see the animal in question," said Keith Herbert of the Aquarium of the Bay. "The animal in question, upon further inspection of the photographs, appears to be a salmon shark which is very closely related to great whites and they are also commonly seen here in the bay."
When asked if the shark was a man eater, Herbert said, "No not at all. There's no reason to be afraid of these sharks...it was a pup, only about three feet long."
Jarrod Ward, a gas dock worker at the Hyde Street Pier, told KPIX 5 that he saw the shark in the area Wednesday afternoon.
According to a Stanford study from the 2000's, only a handful of Great White sharks were recorded passing through the Golden Gate each year in search of food. They are much more easily spotted beyond the gate, closer to the Farallon Islands.
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