Watch: Great white shark caught on line at Hermosa Beach Pier is freed by brave fisherman

The crowd atop the Hermosa Beach Pier watched with bated breath as a local fisherman, stripped down to his underwear and armed with only a pair of scissors, waded into the water in an attempt to free a juvenile great white shark.

Local resident Alexandra Garry, who recorded the rescue mission on her phone, said she was walking her dog around 9:20 a.m. Wednesday when she saw two fishermen struggling to reel in a very heavy catch.

“I was like, ‘Oh, that’s so weird, they must have gotten something really big,’” she said. “I thought perhaps it was a big tuna, really anything except a shark.”

But as the catch got closer to shore, it became evident that the men had accidentally hooked a juvenile great white shark, the most common shark in Southern California, known for its distinctive white belly.

“The next thing I knew, one of the fishermen was half naked, stripped down to his underwear, and was in the water trying to get the hook out,” she said.

That brave fisherman wasted no time in getting up close and personal with the struggling young shark, she said. Wielding a pair of scissors, he cut off the fishing line and then used his bare hands to try to drag his sharp-toothed friend back into the sea.

At first, things did not look good, and the dozen or so people watching from the pier began to despair.

“It was really sad, because the shark didn’t look like it was moving a bunch,” said Garry.

But shortly after the line was removed, the shark regained movement and started thrashing about in an attempt to get into deeper water. The fisherman did not appear flustered by the creature’s erratic movements.

“He just jumped on in there with the shark, and it was rolling around in the waves,” said Garry. “I’m not an expert, but I’ve seen ‘Shark Week.’ I feel like his ankles were in danger.”

Expert shark drone photographer Carlos Gauna said that juvenile great white sharks present little danger to humans as they don’t view us as a food source. The rare exception, he noted, is when fishing is involved as sharks may bite as a defensive measure.

“The only time I ever get a little bit worried about a juvenile white shark possibly hurting somebody inadvertently is when there’s fishing activity going on next to swimmers,” he said. “There’s a precedence for that; we’ve had a shark bite occur because of a direct connection to fishing right nearby.”

In 2014, a 7-foot-long great white shark bit a man swimming near the Manhattan Beach Pier. That attack began when a person fishing hooked the shark and spent more than 30 minutes trying to reel it in, making the shark grow agitated.

Fortunately, on Wednesday morning both human and shark survived the encounter.

After a few minutes of struggling to unbeach the shark, the Hermosa fisherman hoisted the creature up by the tail and successfully pushed it into a crashing wave.

He raised his fists above his head in a sign of victory as onlookers cheered.

“When it swam out, everyone on the pier clapped,” said Garry. “It was a very much needed moment of humanity.”

Chris Lowe, director of the Cal State Long Beach Shark Lab, explained to The Times last week that he is expecting a surge in shark sightings this summer due to unseasonably warm waters in Southern California. That warming trend kicked off amid March’s record-breaking heatwave and is expected to intensify during this year’s strong El Niño cycle.

“The last time we had a strong El Niño was in 2015 and 2016, and we had a lot of juvenile white sharks hanging around early,” said Lowe. “So I’m expecting this year to be a sharky summer.”

Last Thursday, lifeguards in Orange County temporarily shut down a stretch of Newport Beach where an 8-foot-long great white shark was spotted circling a surfer.

L.A. County Lifeguards spokesperson Kealiinohopono “Pono” Barnes said Wednesday that there had been a recent uptick in great white shark sightings reported near the Manhattan Beach Pier.

“They’ve been relatively docile and just cruising through the area and doing their thing,” he said. “The Santa Monica Bay is a white shark nursery, and it is a sign of a healthy ecosystem, so it’s a good thing that we’re seeing sharks out here.”

He said the department was preparing for a spike in shark activity this summer and that beachgoers who do spy a shark should not hesitate to let a lifeguard know. Guards will keep an eye an on the ocean creature and in the event of aggressive behavior, such as a shark darting at surfers or swimmers, will implement a temporary beach closure.

“I am hopeful that nothing bad will happen,” Barnes said. “We haven’t had any incidents other than the 2014 incident where there was a shark that was actually on a fisherman’s line.”

There have been no reports of unprovoked shark attacks along Los Angeles beaches in recent history, he noted, “so it’s nothing to worry about.”