What is up with all this shark business in Santa Cruz?   

Warning signs are up after yet another confirmed shark sighting. This comes after a dead great white shark washed ashore last weekend not far from where dozens of young great whites have been regularly spotted from the air.

The people who study sharks will tell you that you are taking a greater risk driving over Highway 17 to get to the beach than you are by going in the water.

They also say that the reason people are seeing more great white sharks is that there are simply a lot more sharks in the bay these days.

Shark alert signs are now posted at Seascape Beach where some people were heeding the warning to stay out of the water.

“We have little kids, so they’re not going in the water but the bigger kids are going in as you can see,” Beachgoer Maxine Dumas said. “I guess they’re not worried.”

The alert affects a stretch of beach a mile in either direction from where the sighting occurred on Thursday, just below the Seascape resort.

“The reporting party said they spotted the shark about 30 feet from shore and described it as being about 5 feet long,” Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Jim Ross said.

It may have been a young great white shark, perhaps one of the dozens of juvenile great whites that have been seen of late just north of Seascape at Seacliff State Beach, says the Pacific Shark Research Center’s Dr. David Ebert.

“From a helicopter near the cement ship, I’ll count 30 sharks within a mile or two of the beach,” Dr. Ebert said.  “I’ve studied sharks all over the world, and I can tell you I’ve never seen such high numbers that we’re seeing the past few years here in Monterey Bay.”

Dr. Ebert says it’s a sign the bay is healthy with an abundance of food. Coincidentally, another young great white shark washed ashore last weekend between the cement ship and Seascape.

Foul play is suspected as a cause of death.  As one beachgoer commented, maybe the sharks have more to fear from people than the other way around.

Either way, those signs have clearly gotten people’s attention.

“I was just walking along the beach, and I saw a fin and told another woman and she saw it too,” beachgoer Jane said.

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