Shark Attacks in California

A cold coast with big sharks: why California's record looks the way it does

Most of the world's shark bites come from small, warm-water species nipping at feet in murky surf. California is the opposite case. Its water is cold, 10 to 18 °C for most of the year, and its coast is lined with the prey that adult white sharks travel thousands of kilometres to eat: northern elephant seals at Año Nuevo, Point Reyes and the Channel Islands, harbour seals in every cove, and California sea lions everywhere from the Farallones to La Jolla. The sharks arrive at the colonies from late summer and stay into early winter, and the surfers, kayakers and divers who share those headlands are in the water at the same time, in wetsuits, on boards and lying on the surface in the exact silhouette a hunting white shark is looking for.

South of Point Conception the story changes. The Southern California Bight is warmer and calmer, and it is the nursery of the eastern Pacific white shark population: juveniles of one to three metres spend their first years in the shallows off Santa Barbara, Ventura, the Los Angeles beaches and northern San Diego County, feeding on fish and rays. They are curious rather than dangerous, and they are the reason so many recent entries describe a small white shark bumping a paddleboard or biting a swim fin without hurting anyone. Between the adults in the north and the juveniles in the south, there is hardly a beach in the state without a white shark somewhere offshore in the right season.

The last element is exposure. California has the largest surfing population in the United States, a long tradition of free diving for abalone on the north coast, a booming kayak-fishing scene and thousands of open-water swimmers. The database records each incident by beach and county, so the geography in the next section is counted from the rows themselves: which counties hold the most entries, where the deaths happened and where the newest cases were logged.

Where along the California coast the incidents happened, county by county

Every California row names a beach, island or stretch of coast and almost all name a county, so the groups below are counted from the table itself. The pattern they show is the one the biology predicts: the most rows in the crowded south, where juvenile white sharks share the beaches with the largest number of people, and the most deaths on the central coast, where adults hunt seals beside surf breaks and dive sites.

• San Diego County: Solana Beach, Del Mar, La Jolla, San Onofre and Imperial Beach (42 entries, 2 fatal)The county with the most rows in the state, 21 of them since 2000. San Onofre and its state beach account for nine, La Jolla for seven, Imperial Beach for three. Both deaths were people taken by large white sharks: a free diver collecting abalone off La Jolla in June 1959, whose body was never found, and a swimmer at Solana Beach on 25 April 2008, killed by a white shark of 12 to 15 feet. Del Mar has the newest cases, a swimmer with shallow punctures to the thigh from a juvenile white shark in November 2022 and an ocean swimmer in training with significant bites to the torso, left arm and hand on 2 June 2024. The county's four hammerhead rows all belong to the warm El Niño summer of 2015.
• Los Angeles and Orange counties: Santa Monica Bay, Malibu, Catalina, Huntington and Newport (64 entries, 2 fatal)The heart of the juvenile white shark nursery, and the source of most of the record's no-injury rows. Los Angeles County has 41 entries, with Santa Monica, Venice Beach and Malibu on four each and Long Beach and Hermosa Beach on three, but only 12 since 2000; the newest is a provoked bite on a kayak angler releasing a hooked mako off Paradise Cove, Malibu, on 4 October 2026, and the one before it dates from 2019, when a white shark bit a kayak at Ship Rock near Catalina. Its two deaths are a kayaker at Latigo Point west of Malibu in January 1989, attributed to a five-metre white shark, and a boat explosion off Santa Monica in July 1952 in which survivors were bitten. Orange County's 23 rows include seven at Huntington Beach, three at Newport Beach and two at Dana Point, none fatal; 13 date from 2000 onwards and the newest is a canoeist with an injured hand at Catalina Island in June 2021. A swimmer bitten on the leg and foot off Catalina by a small unidentified shark in September 2025 is the latest row for this stretch.
• Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties: Surf Beach, San Miguel Island, Point Conception, Avila and Pismo (44 entries, 6 fatal)The transition between the juvenile nursery and the adult feeding grounds, and the deadliest part of the file. Santa Barbara County's 25 rows carry four deaths, all white sharks: a commercial diver at San Miguel Island in December 1994, a body boarder at Surf Beach on Vandenberg Air Force Base in October 2010, a surfer at the same beach in October 2012 and a boogie boarder at San Miguel Island on 26 February 2022, the last fatal row in the state. San Luis Obispo County's 15 rows hold two more, a swimmer at Atascadero Beach near Morro Bay in April 1957 and the swimmer at Avila Beach in August 2003 whose femoral artery was severed by a white shark of 15 to 18 feet; Pismo Beach has three rows and the newest county entry is a kayak bitten off Cambria in October 2019. Ventura County adds four rows, including a surfer bitten on the leg at Santa Rosa Island in December 2019.
• Monterey and Santa Cruz counties: Pacific Grove, Lovers Point, Pleasure Point, Davenport and Sand Dollar Beach (32 entries, 3 fatal)Monterey Bay is where surfers meet adult white sharks closest to a city. Santa Cruz County's 15 rows are twelve surfers and one death, a surfer killed by a white shark at Sand Dollar Beach on 9 May 2020; Pleasure Point, Davenport Landing and Santa Cruz itself have two rows each. Monterey County's 17 rows include a body surfer killed at Pacific Grove in December 1952, the 1899 harpooning of a basking shark that smashed a boat in Monterey Bay, and, on the same peninsula, the 1981 Spanish Bay surfing death blamed on a seven-metre white shark. Pacific Grove is also where a swimmer suffered a broken femur and stomach injuries from a 16-foot white shark in June 2022, and the 21 December 2025 row at Lovers Point describes a swimmer taken by a great white whose body was recovered with multiple injuries, though the table does not yet carry a fatal flag on it.
• San Mateo County: Pigeon Point, Franklin Point, Mavericks and Linda Mar (26 entries, 1 fatal)Año Nuevo's elephant seal rookery sits at the county's southern end and the white shark is named in 19 of the 26 rows, 19 of which are surfers. Franklin Point and Pigeon Point have four entries each, the latter including the only death, a skin diver killed by a 4.5 to 5 metre white shark in September 1984. The newest county rows are a kayak bitten off Pebble Beach in August 2023 and a surfer with a minor lower-leg injury at Linda Mar in Pacifica in October 2023; a surfer at Montara State Beach met a great white without injury on 31 May 2025.
• Marin and Sonoma counties and the Farallon Islands: Tomales Point, Dillon Beach, Stinson, Bodega and Salmon Creek (35 entries, 0 fatal)The northern arm of the Red Triangle, where seal colonies at Point Reyes draw adult white sharks from late summer. Marin County's 16 rows have Dillon Beach and Tomales Point on four each; the newest is a swimmer at Wildcat Beach on 1 October 2023 whose body was not recovered, a row the table does not mark as fatal. Sonoma County's 15 rows cluster at Salmon Creek, which under its various spellings holds seven, with Bodega Rock on two; the newest is a surfer with a hand injury at Salmon Creek on 12 December 2025 from a suspected great white. The Farallon Islands add four rows plus the Southeast Farallon entries, all divers and spearfishers bitten by large white sharks, from 1962, 1964, 1974 and 1975 to a diver filming in October 2018 whose hand and wrist were injured by a 17-foot female.
• The north coast: Humboldt, Mendocino and Del Norte (30 entries, 1 fatal)Humboldt County has 19 rows, 16 of them surfers and the white shark named in 15, spread over Moonstone Beach, Bunkers, Shelter Cove and Samoa Beach; none was fatal and the newest is a kayak damaged at Shelter Cove in August 2020. Mendocino County is the abalone-diving coast: six of its seven rows are divers, and the one death is a diver at Kibesillah in August 2004 taken by a white shark of 16 to 18 feet. It also holds the two newest rows in the state before October 2026, both surfers and both attributed to great whites: minor puncture wounds to the thigh on 13 January 2026 and injuries to both legs and feet at Big River Beach on 18 March 2026. Del Norte County's four rows are surfers and an angler at the mouth of the Klamath River, none injured, one of them a board bitten by an 18 to 20 foot white shark in 1992.
• San Francisco Bay and the city beaches (7 entries, 3 fatal)Sevengill, leopard and soupfin sharks live inside the bay, and the record's bay entries are old and mostly unconfirmed: a hard-hat diver who lost three toes near a cannery in 1851, a swimmer with a dog bitten in 1926, and the three rows of 11 June 1962 for men escaping from Alcatraz, two marked fatal with the note that shark involvement was unconfirmed and death may have been by drowning. The one confirmed white shark death is outside the Golden Gate, at Baker Beach in May 1959, identified from tooth marks; Ocean Beach has a 2005 surfboard bump by a 12 to 14 foot white shark.

The complete California record

The summary figures, the decade chart, the six newest cases and the full table are all generated from the SharkSider database, which combines the International Shark Attack File, the Global Shark Attack File and verified local reports and is refreshed every week. Rows describing a death are shaded red. Three of the 331 entries are older than 1900, from 1851, 1879 and 1899, so the decade chart covers 327 entries from 1900 onwards; the older rows appear in the collapsed groups at the end of the table.

• Recorded incidents331 (328 since 1900)
• Fatal22
• Years covered1851–2026
• Since 2000152 incidents, 7 fatal
• Most common activitySurfing & boards
• Most identified sharkWhite shark

The most recent incidents

• 4 October 2026 · Paradise Cove, Malibu, Los Angeles County, CaliforniaKayak fishing - releasing a hooked shark (provoked) — Bites to lower leg and above the kneeShark: Shortfin mako shark · not fatal
• 18 March 2026 · Big River Beach Mendocino County, CaliforniaSurfing — Injuries to both legs and feetShark: Great White Shark · not fatal
• 13 January 2026 · Mendocino County, CaliforniaSurfing — Minor puncture wounds to upper left thighShark: Suspected GWS · not fatal
• 21 December 2025 · Lovers Point Pacific Grove, CaliforniaSwimming — Taken by shark body recovered with multiple injuriesShark: Great White Shark · not fatal
• 12 December 2025 · Salmon Creek, Sonoma County CaliforniaSurfing — Hand injuryShark: Suspected Great White Shark · not fatal
• 29 September 2025 · Catalina Island, Off CaliforniaSwimming — Leg and foot injuryShark: unknown 1.2m shark · not fatal

Every recorded incident

Three things make this table easier to read. First, a large part of it is not injuries: 113 rows record no injury, usually because a white shark bit a surfboard, a kayak or a swim fin and released it, and 78 of those involve damage to a board, kayak or boat alone. Second, 39 rows are marked as provoked incidents, from anglers bitten by hooked blue sharks and makos to a 1984 aquarium worker whose head was mouthed by a captive sevengill and a 1994 case of a lemon shark being removed from a nightclub tank. Third, 31 rows carry a note that shark involvement was not confirmed, was invalid or was a hoax: the two 1935 fishing-boat explosion entries listed as fatal attacks elsewhere but attributed here to the blast, the 1962 Alcatraz escapees, a 2013 marathon swimmer whose puncture wound turned out not to be a shark bite, a 2014 surfing hoax and a 2020 body boarder whose ankle was cut by a stingray. Of the 22 fatal rows, 15 are confirmed white shark deaths; the other seven are the 1899 and undated basking shark hunting accidents, the 1935 and 1952 boat explosions and the two Alcatraz entries. The 26 January 1989 kayaking case appears twice, once as a fatal white shark entry and once with the note that forensic evidence showed the kayaker died before any shark was involved. Two recent rows sit outside the fatal count although they read like deaths: a swimmer at Wildcat Beach in October 2023 whose body was not recovered, and a swimmer taken by a great white at Lovers Point on 21 December 2025 whose body was recovered with multiple injuries; neither carries a fatal flag in the table. Species in the last column are as reported by witnesses and investigators; 59 rows have no identification at all, and the newest entries write the white shark out as "great white" or "suspected GWS". The newest row of all is a kayak angler bitten twice by a shortfin mako he was releasing off Paradise Cove, Malibu, on 4 October 2026; the newest white shark row is a surfer at Big River Beach in Mendocino County on 18 March 2026.

The sharks named in California's incidents

White shark. Identified in 160 of the 331 entries, plus a handful of the newest rows that spell it out as "great white", and in every one of the 15 confirmed fatal bites, from the 1952 body surfer at Pacific Grove to the 2022 boogie boarder at San Miguel Island. The sizes recorded in the fatal rows, 4.5 to 5.5 metres in 2003, 2004, 1994 and 1984, 14 to 18 feet in 2010, 15 to 16 feet in 2012 and a 7-metre animal in the 1981 surfing death, show that the killers are large adults. The many small bites and board bumps since 2010, by contrast, are mostly juveniles of six to eight feet in the southern nursery, and the 2025 and 2026 rows from Salmon Creek, Montara and Mendocino show adults still meeting surfers on the north coast every winter. Our great white shark profile covers the biology; the 1959 identification of a white shark from tooth marks by Dr. W. I. Follett shows how carefully the older records were checked.

Blue shark. Every blue shark entry is minor: a swimmer bitten on the forearm in 1959 while passing through a school of feeding sharks, a wader bitten on the arm by a small blue shark in 1984, and provoked bites on anglers and a diver filming one in 1989. Blue sharks are abundant offshore and almost never approach the beach.

Hammerhead. Hammerheads appear in two warm-water clusters. In July and August 1959 they rammed boats and bit a spearfisher on the thigh; in the El Niño summer of 2015 they rammed kayaks and bit a spearfisher on the hand and a kayak angler on the foot. Hammerheads are rare visitors that follow warm water north.

Shortfin mako. A handful of entries, including a severe leg laceration in 2015, a provoked bite on an angler's hand by a boated mako in 1941 and a gaffed mako that bit a kayak in 2015. A 2006 boogie boarder who suffered a broken neck was thought to have been hit by a mako, though the record notes it may have been a sea lion.

Sevengill and the oddities. The broadnose sevengill appears with captive animals in 1962 and 1984 and once in open water, damaging a spearfisher's wetsuit in 2011. The rest of the list is a reminder of how varied California's sharks are: a leopard shark that bumped a diver's face in 1955, a horn shark that bit an abalone diver who had hit it in 1962, a salmon shark that bit a swimmer's foot in 2013 and a dying juvenile washed against a wader's foot in 2018, a thresher that punctured an angler's hand in 2009, and a shovelnose guitarfish, a ray, credited with a calf bite in an undated row. Basking sharks account for two fatal rows, both from the days when they were harpooned from small boats. See the sharks in California page for the complete fauna.

Rules that follow from the California record

The table has enough cases to show clearly when and how people are hurt, and the precautions below are drawn from it rather than from general advice.

• Respect the autumn seal season on the central and north coast. Adult white sharks are at the colonies from August through November, and 192 of the 331 entries fall in July to October. Surfing or diving beside an elephant seal or sea lion haul-out in those months is the highest-risk thing you can do in Californian water.
• Kayak anglers: keep bait and catch out of the water. Thirty-three rows involve kayaks, many of them white sharks biting or ramming the hull; several are provoked bites from gaffed or hooked sharks. Fish on a stringer trailing beside a kayak is an invitation.
• Do not lie still on the surface in a black wetsuit over deep water. The 2003 swimming death names the black wetsuit and fins in the record, and the deaths of divers in 1959, 1984, 1994 and 2004 show that divers are not exempt. Descend along the kelp, surface next to the boat and keep moving.
• Swim in groups and close to shore. The confirmed white shark deaths of 1957, 2003 and 2008, at Morro Bay, Avila Beach and Solana Beach, were all swimmers, and the 2024 Del Mar and 2025 Lovers Point rows were swimmers too. Lifeguarded beaches in the south see juvenile white sharks daily and record almost no serious injuries.
• Leave hooked and stranded sharks alone. Thirty-nine provoked rows, from a 1955 surfer who grabbed a shark to anglers bitten while boating blue sharks and makos, are entirely avoidable.
• Heed beach closures. After a sighting or a bite, California lifeguards typically close beaches for a day or more; the record's recent clusters show why.

If a white shark does approach, the steps in our guide to how to survive a shark attack apply with one Californian addition: get out of the water and onto the board, the kayak or the rocks, because a large white shark rarely returns after the first bite and the injuries that kill are blood loss from a single strike.

California against Florida, Hawaii and the world

The International Shark Attack File confirms roughly 60 to 80 unprovoked bites worldwide in a typical year, and California contributes a handful, usually between two and six. In raw numbers it sits behind Florida and Hawaii in the US record, but the character is different: Florida's hundreds of bites are mostly blacktips nipping waders, whereas a Californian bite that breaks the skin is usually a white shark of four metres or more, which is why the state's fatal count of 22 is high for its total. Along the West Coast, Oregon shares the same sharks and the same surfer profile on a smaller scale, and Alaska has almost nothing. Across the border, Mexico and its Baja and Guadalupe Island white sharks belong to the same population that hunts off California. The full list of countries and states is on the shark attacks overview and the United States page.

Shark attacks in neighbouring states and waters

North along the coast, Oregon records the same white shark bites on surfers at a lower rate, and Alaska sits beyond the species' usual range. Across the Pacific, Hawaii has a record of similar length dominated by tiger sharks rather than whites. On the Atlantic side, Florida and Texas show what warm-water bites look like. For the species themselves, start with the sharks in California page.

Written and reviewed by

SharkSider Editorial Team

A small team focused on researching sharks and making marine biology easy to understand. Every page is reviewed against current species records and the SharkSider attack database, and updated when new incidents or research appear.

Published September 17, 2023 · Last updated October 5, 2026 · 331 records for California in the SharkSider attack database (22 fatal), updated weekly.