DANA POINT – For John Garbino, it was the sight of a lifetime: a baby great white shark thrashing in the surf trying to get back out to sea.
Garbino, 43, had just come out of the water after a twilight surf session at Doheny Beach on Wednesday when he saw something gray and white struggling in the surf.
"I was thinking 'Is that a Mako or a tiger shark?' " Garbino said. "We walked over, and it looked just like a baby great white. It was struggling, and it was kind of sad (for me.) With so many surfers in the water, it was a dichotomy; you don't want to release it back but you don't want it to die."
Garbino said about 30 people were watching the shark that was about 3 feet long and about 50 pounds. Finally, Garbino said, a surfer grabbed it by its belly and tail and took it out to deeper water.
Garbino posted a video of the struggling shark on YouTube. The video received lots of attention in the surf community and has beachgoers anxious about weekend plans.
But Kirk Schoonover, a lifeguard at Doheny State Beach, said there is no reason for alarm. He said the shark was not a baby great white but a salmon shark.
"Everybody mistakes them as great whites because they have the same shape and color," he said. "The difference is the teeth. The salmon shark has jagged and thin teeth. On a great white, you have a definite triangular-shaped tooth."
Schoonover said salmon sharks are more common farther up the California coast but occasionally make it down here. Last year, two were seen in Huntington Beach.
They prefer colder waters and normally swim in water at least 200 feet deep, Schoonover said. Likely, the recent drop in water temperature from 75 to 62 might explain why it was in this area feeding on squid.
Schoonover said the shark drew lots of attention but was not dangerous to swimmers or surfers, though it concerned lots of people.
A former state lifeguard who is an avid spear fisherman and marine biologist identified it as a salmon shark. He was the surfer who ended up grabbing it by its tail and belly and taking it back out to sea, Schoonover said.
Garbino said when he took pictures home to his four children, he told them it was a rubber shark.
"They're always asking me if there are sharks in the water, and I didn't want them to be scared," he said.
Now, he's a little disappointed.
"I kind of hoped it would have been a great white," Garbino said. "In my lifetime, I may never get to see one."