Local Stories by Local People
updated: Dec 18, 2012, 4:00 PM

KEY News has obtained exclusive footage taken by a local lobsterman of two great white sharks feeding off Santa Cruz Island.

Comments in order of when they were received | (reverse order)

COMMENT 355335	2012-12-18 04:02 PM
Awesome!
COMMENT 355337P	2012-12-18 04:05 PM
Double awesome!
COMMENT 355339	2012-12-18 04:13 PM
Meaty !
COMMENT 355340	2012-12-18 04:14 PM
Are we supposed to be surprised by this? The islands are huge seal breeding grounds, and it is common sense that they lurk all over out there.
COMMENT 355341	2012-12-18 04:15 PM
340 - I think the idea is that we are supposed to be impressed, amazed, curious or any other reaction. This is a once in a life time sight for anyone. Awesome!
COMMENT 355343P	2012-12-18 04:30 PM
I see some still photos, but no video.
COMMENT 355347	2012-12-18 04:38 PM
The time to end the overzealous protection of the Carpinteria seal rookery is now. This rookery provides a literal buffet for sharks and threatens our status as the "Worlds Safest Beach" The lure of this buffet is subjecting us locals as well as tourists to unnecessary risks. Open the beach year-round to humans and dogs and stop the harassment by the seal watch volunteers! The closure is unnecessary and the seals survived just fine before the draconian mandated closure of the beach began. The closure of the beach undoubtedly increases the amount of sharks in our area as this has been recently confirmed by a NOAA observer studying the rookery. Stop the harassment, free the beach!
COMMENT 355353	2012-12-18 04:51 PM
347, sorry but you're off base about this. The rookery isn't causing any harm. People cause harm to the seals. The seals themselves have been around in that area for (literally) ever. There's nothing overzealous about it and there's nothing unusual about sharks in that area, both large and small species. Please don't fuel the fire with rhetoric that isn't well-based in fact. I've been surfing that area since the 1960s and the rookery has not attracted any more unusual of a number of sharks than before. There is NO increase in number, only an increase in people freaking out who didn't realize we had sharks before.
COMMENT 355377P	2012-12-18 06:11 PM
If we are going to make the entire world pamper to the self-serving needs of humans, we are eventually going to lose all food sources as well. We need to live with, not lord over, the natural world.
COMMENT 355379	2012-12-18 06:14 PM
Seals and Seal Rookeries attract sharks. You figure the rest out.
COMMENT 355394	2012-12-18 06:55 PM
You know, KEYT has really been bad lately, since the management change, I guess. They stopped covering local news as well as they used to, and instead focus on the 'terror' of great whites off our shores. Would be nice to have a decent local TV station around here.
YIN YANG	2012-12-18 09:34 PM
very cool footage! And I'd like to give a shout out to Peter Howarth (just because he was on camera, for anyone who doesn't know who he is). THANK YOU for all you do! and for sharing your knowledge.
COMMENT 355457P	2012-12-19 01:57 AM
Sadly, I, too, hoped for better news coverage after the station was bought out. And daily the SBNP gets thinner and thinner. Barely enough to line the cat box with.
COMMENT 355466	2012-12-19 07:01 AM
SBNP is expensive cat box liner. Use real estate rags instead; they're free and kitty can laugh at the adds.
FLICKA	2012-12-19 07:31 AM
I don't do KEY-T or the NP, get news from Edhat, Independent and our local Carpinteria Coastal View. That shark news is awsome, an experience of a lifetime for the fishermen! Glad they shared the photos. I am SO sick of wankers wanting to close our seal rookery.
COMMENT 355486	2012-12-19 07:34 AM
Those who think the seal rookery is unnatural or attracts sharks aren't dealing with the facts..seals aren't just in that one spot. And there are really not sharks seen in that spot regularly. They are out further (where this footage took place was MANY MILES AND MILES away from the rookery. Why people would rather talk about things they decide in their heads instead of facts and what actual experts have to say on the subject? Sharks are out there, all the time. The big ones feed maybe once a week. They've been out there for a lot longer than we've been here. I'm thinking some of you might be surprised that there are birds in the sky, too....
COMMENT 355503	2012-12-19 08:05 AM
@355486 You most likely haven't read the recently published article about the increase of sharks in the Carpinteria area. A NOAA biologist observing the rookery stated the sharks are most definitely interested in the rookery and more so thanks to forced "protection" of the rookery, over the course of one afternoon for example 6 seals were seen with fresh bite marks in the rookery. The scientist was also shocked to see people in the water nearby due to the obvious risk. The rookery attacks sharks, confirmed. It is just a matter of time before a bather or surfer is attacked in a case of mistaken identity.
COMMENT 355511	2012-12-19 08:19 AM
I love it when people on here say they only get their news from Edhat. Edhat doesn't do news, it only links to other news sources. You can bash the other media all you want, but apparently they aren't bad enough to take their content.
COMMENT 355548	2012-12-19 09:17 AM
The fisherman (Ray) is the father of the 7th grader (Jace) featured in the Independent a few weeks ago for 397 (and counting) consecutive days surfing.
COMMENT 355622P	2012-12-19 11:15 AM
I LOVE KEYT! Thanks for showing this footage!

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