On Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026, a large shark leaped out of the water behind a woman posing for photos at Marina State Beach in Monterey County, California. State Parks said it confirmed a breach by reviewing a Surfline camera and posted shark notices. No injuries were reported. The species and size are not officially established.
In this article
A shark launched itself almost completely out of the water just behind a woman posing for photos at Marina State Beach in Monterey County, California, on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026. California State Parks told Fox Weather that it independently confirmed a great white shark breached at the beach around the time the video was recorded. No injuries have been reported.
The video spread widely online, and some viewers doubted it was real. State Parks says a Surfline coastal camera backs up the event. Outlets differ on how firmly officials tied the animal on that camera to the one in the viral clip and on whether the species was officially confirmed, and no official size has been given.
What happened at Marina State Beach
Fox Weather reported that a beachgoer in Marina captured the video and that the shark “leaped straight up, emerging almost completely out of the water.” Fox Weather credits the footage to Rania Melhem and Erin King via the video agency Storyful.
Erin King, a local who grew up in the area, told KSBW Action News 8 how the moment came about, according to Surfer. She noticed three young women taking photos and offered to help. They insisted on taking one of her in return, and the shark breached just yards behind her as she posed. “It happened so fast. I mean, it was just an instant,” she said.
The breach behind King was seen at around 12:30 p.m., while State Parks cameras separately recorded a breach at about 12:26 p.m. that day, according to KSBW as relayed by Hoodline.
What State Parks has said
State Parks told Fox Weather that it independently confirmed a great white shark breached Marina State Beach around the same time the video was recorded. In a statement quoted by Fox Weather, the department said: “Posted shark notices are in effect at the beach in accordance with the department’s protocol,” according to the statement, which added that “interactions between people and sharks are rare.”
Surfer reported that State Parks verified the event after reviewing footage from a nearby Surfline camera. It quoted a State Parks official as saying the timestamp on King’s video “matched up perfectly with the timestamp on the Surfline video,” and that the animal is “very likely to be the same, same shark” given where King was standing. Hoodline, however, reported that officials said they cannot confirm whether the shark in King’s video is the same animal their cameras picked up.
Reports also differ on identification. Fox Weather attributes the great white identification to State Parks. Hoodline reported that the species has not been confirmed, though State Parks said the behavior appears consistent with a great white, citing a post by a Reddit user. RusTourismNews likewise said the species and exact size have not been established. We found no official measurement of the animal in any source we reviewed, so this article does not give a size.
About the video
Status: the breach itself is confirmed by State Parks, but whether King’s clip shows the same animal as the Surfline camera is disputed in the reporting above. We have not embedded the clip. It is distributed through Storyful, and we did not find an original post from the person who recorded it that we could verify. Footage should be treated as the property of its owners.
Why white sharks are near the Central Coast in fall
State Parks officials said autumn is the most common time for adult white sharks to migrate back to the Central Coast, according to Surfer. Research backs the seasonal pattern. A 2021 study led by researchers at Montana State University, with Oregon State, Stanford, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and UC Santa Cruz scientists among the co-authors, collected data “during peak periods of their residency in the fall and early winter” off California, according to Oregon State University.
The same release says the main aggregation of white sharks in the California Current is off Central California, from Bodega Bay south to Monterey Bay. The group spends about half the year in offshore waters of the northeast Pacific and about half along the coast. The researchers estimated the population at about 300 animals. White sharks are apex predators that prey on large marine mammals such as elephant seals, harbor seals and sea lions, the release says. That study is five years old, so counts may have changed.
Beach safety pointers from officials
- Follow posted shark notices. State Parks says they are in effect at Marina State Beach, per Fox Weather.
- Be aware of the season. A State Parks official urged “using caution when surfing or swimming” around the Central Coast at this time of year, according to Bro Bible, which quoted the interview.
- Keep it in perspective. State Parks reminds visitors that sharks are an important part of the coastal ecosystem and that interactions between people and sharks are rare, per Fox Weather.
We could not reach the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s white shark page while preparing this article, so the pointers above come from State Parks as quoted by news outlets.
Sources
- Fox Weather: “VIDEO: California beachgoers capture monster shark leaping out of the water”, Oct. 2026 (accessed Oct. 24, 2026)
- Surfer, via Yahoo: “Great White Shark Breach Stuns Marina Beach As Viral ‘Fake’ Photobomb Proven Real”, Oct. 20, 2026 (accessed Oct. 24, 2026)
- Hoodline: “Shark Breaches Behind Beachgoer at Marina State Beach, Video Shows”, Oct. 20, 2026 (accessed Oct. 24, 2026)
- RusTourismNews: “Giant Shark Caught on Camera Leaping From Ocean Near Popular California Beach”, Oct. 19, 2026 (accessed Oct. 24, 2026)
- Bro Bible: “Perfect Timing: Great White Shark Breaches In The Background While Woman Poses At A California Beach”, Oct. 20, 2026 (accessed Oct. 24, 2026)
- Oregon State University, via ScienceDaily: “White shark population is small but healthy off the coast of Central California”, May 20, 2021 (accessed Oct. 24, 2026)
Every fact in this article is checked against its source before publication. Editorial standards