ENCINITAS (CBS 8) - There's been another large fin spotted off Swami's Beach in Encinitas, and Wednesday we may have figured out where it came from. This time the fin that one fisherman thought was from a shark turned out to be a fake.
The fisherman, who was on a paddleboard, spotted what he believed to be a fake shark fin found floating in the kelp beds off Swami's Beach on Monday.
"I went out and got a little closer but I was hesitant to get too close because it looked like a shark fin," he said.
The fisherman does not want to be identified, but once he realized the fin wasn't real, he decided to take it home. The rig itself is made out of wood attached with screws to PVC pipe.
"I tell you what, if the lifeguard saw this, from a distance, it wouldn't surprise me if they cleared the beach. That's how realistic it looked, that's all I have to say," he said.
We showed the contraption to Encinitas lifeguards, who say if this is a hoax, whoever's responsible could get a citation.
"If this was used to create a false alarm, it would actually pull out a lot of resources out of the coastal areas here in Encinitas -- fire, lifeguard, sheriff -- that would cause us to pull resources from areas where we're watching people on the beach and in the water," Encinitas lifeguard Capt. Larry Giles said.
The sight of a shark fin off Swami's reminds beachgoers of a photo taken earlier this month of what could have been a great white shark.
"I don't think it was the one on the news like a month ago. This doesn't look like that one," a resident said.
"If you saw that on a wave, it would not be fun. It definitely doesn't look like a dolphin fin," another resident said.