Mako shark shown savagely attacking sea lion, anglers rejoice
A fishing-themed Instagram page on Thursday shared graphic footage showing a large mako shark savagely attacking a sea lion off Southern California. (Footage is posted below.)
There was no doubt about the outcome, which had many fishermen cheering.
'Thank you Mr. Mako! We love you!' reads one of the top comments beneath the BD Outdoors post.
BD Outdoors, borrowing footage originally shared by NDMK Fish House on Santa Catalina Island, stated:
'Insane video of this massive shark chowing down on a bull sea lion off Catalina. What goes around comes around… win for the yellowtail fleet.'
The comments and reference to the yellowtail fleet underscore the hatred Southern California anglers often express toward sea lions, which can seem omnipresent at the fishing grounds. Sea lions are notorious for stealing hooked fish, and anglers are often left with only fish heads.
Keith Poe, a renowned Southern California fisherman who tags sharks for scientific research, identified the shark as a mako. He said the footage was captured near Seal Rocks at Catalina's east end.
Another top comment: 'We've all wanted to see this happen!'
Another follower expressed his gratitude, explaining that sea lions have cost him several possible jackpot wins on fishing boats, by taking all or part of his catches.
Of course not everybody would be rooting for the shark. The Seal Rocks area is commonly visited by tour boats with passengers hoping to view seals and sea lions.
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Los Angeles Times
2 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Trump says he's deporting the ‘worst of the worst.' What is really happening?
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As the number of immigration arrests in the L.A. region quadrupled from 540 in April to 2,185 in June, seven out of 10 immigrants arrested in June had no criminal conviction — a trend that immigrant advocates say belies administration claims that they are targeting 'heinous illegal alien criminals' who represent a threat to public safety. According to a Los Angeles Times analysis of ICE data from the Deportation Data Project, the proportion of immigrants without criminal convictions arrested in seven counties in and around L.A. has skyrocketed from 35% in April, to 46% in May, and to 69% from June 1 to June 26. Austin Kocher, a geographer and research assistant professor at Syracuse University who specializes in immigration enforcement, said the Trump administration was not being entirely honest about the criminal status of those they were arresting. Officials, he said, followed a strategy of focusing on the minority of violent convicted criminals so they could justify enforcement policies that are proving to be less popular. 'I think they know that if they were honest with the American public that they're arresting people who cook our food, wash dishes in the kitchen, take care of people in nursing homes, people who are just living in part of the community … there's a large segment of the public, including a large segment of Trump's own supporters, who would be uncomfortable and might even oppose those kinds of immigration practices.' 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As White House chief advisor on border policy Tom Homan put it: 'If you're in the country illegally, you got a problem.' Still, things did not really pick up until May, when White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller ordered ICE's top field officials to shift to more aggressive tactics: arresting undocumented immigrants, whether or not they had a criminal record. Miller set a new goal: arresting 3,000 undocumented people a day, a quota that immigration experts say is impossible to reach by focusing only on criminals. 'There aren't enough criminal immigrants in the United States to fill their arrest quotas and to get millions and millions of deportations, which is what the president has explicitly promised,' Bier said. 'Immigration and Customs Enforcement says there's half a million removable noncitizens who have criminal convictions in the United States. Most of those are nonviolent: traffic, immigration offenses. It's not millions and millions.' By the time Trump celebrated six months in office, DHS boasted that the Trump administration had already arrested more than 300,000 undocumented immigrants. '70% of ICE arrests,' the agency said in a news release, 'are individuals with criminal convictions or charges.' But that claim no longer appeared to be true. While 78% of undocumented immigrants arrested across the U.S. in April had a criminal conviction or faced a pending charge, that number had plummeted to 57% in June. In L.A., the difference between what Trump officials said and the reality on the ground was more stark: Only 43% of those arrested across the L.A. region had criminal convictions or faced a pending charge. Still, ICE kept insisting it was 'putting the worst first.' As stories circulate across communities about the arrests of law-abiding immigrants, there are signs that support for Trump's deportation agenda is falling. A CBS/YouGov poll published July 20 shows about 56% of those surveyed approved of Trump's handling of immigration in March, but that dropped to 50% in June and 46% in July. About 52% of poll respondents said the Trump administration is trying to deport more people than expected. When asked who the Trump administration is prioritizing for deporting, only 44% said 'dangerous criminals.' California Gov. Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass have repeatedly accused Trump of conducting a national experiment in Los Angeles. 'The federal government is using California as a playground to test their indiscriminate actions that fulfill unsafe arrest quotas and mass detention goals,' Diana Crofts-Pelayo, a spokesperson for Newsom told The Times. 'They are going after every single immigrant, regardless of whether they have a criminal background and without care that they are American citizens, legal status holders and foreign-born, and even targeting native-born U.S. citizens.' When pressed on why ICE is arresting immigrants who have not been convicted or are not facing pending criminal charges, Trump administration officials tend to argue that many of those people have violated immigration law. 'ICE agents are going to arrest people for being in the country illegally,' Homan told CBS News earlier this month. 'We still focus on public safety threats and national security threats, but if we find an illegal alien in the process of doing that, they're going to be arrested too.' Immigration experts say that undermines their message that they are ridding communities of people who threaten public safety. 'It's a big backtracking from 'These people are out killing people, raping people, harming them in demonstrable ways,' to 'This person broke immigration law in this way or that way,'' Bier said. The Trump administration is also trying to find new ways to target criminals in California. 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Chicago Tribune
3 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Today in Chicago History: Cubs pitcher Greg Maddux records 3,000th strikeout at a wet Wrigley
Here's a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on July 26, according to the Tribune's archives. Is an important event missing from this date? Email us. Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago) 1964: Jimmy Hoffa, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, was found guilty in Chicago on three of 20 counts of fraud related to the Teamsters' Central States Pension Fund and one count of conspiracy. He was convicted of jury tampering earlier that year. 1985: Old St. Patrick's Church held its first 'World's Largest Block Party.' Tickets were $15 and entertainment included Stanley Paul & His Orchestra and the Jesse White Tumblers. The church discontinued the annual event in 2020. 2005: After a lengthy rain delay, Chicago Cubs pitcher Greg Maddux recorded his 3,000th career strikeout. Maddux caught San Francisco Giants shortstop Omar Vizquel looking at a third strike to end the third inning. Maddux, who was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2014, became the 13th member of the 3,000 strikeout club and the ninth pitcher in history with both 3,000 strikeouts and 300 victories. 2016: Park Ridge native Hillary Clinton became the first woman nominated to lead a major American political party in a run toward the White House. Subscribe to the free Vintage Chicago Tribune newsletter, join our Chicagoland history Facebook group, stay current with Today in Chicago History and follow us on Instagram for more from Chicago's past.
New York Post
5 hours ago
- New York Post
LA home linked to ‘TikTok cult' pastor seen in Netflix docuseries raided in sex-trafficking probe
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