ANGLER NETS BIGGER TROUBLE.

Byline: Bill Becher Special to the Daily News

An angler fishing from a pier in Hermosa Beach faces misdemeanor charges after a story ran last Thursday in a local paper about his landing a 6-foot great white shark, a protected species under California law.

Abraham Ulloa, a building contractor from Los Angeles, fought the shark for two hours. He says it took three people to pull in the fish, which he and others on the pier thought was a mako shark. Makos can be kept under Fish and Game regulations.

Kevin Cody, editor of the weekly Easy Reader, which serves beach communities including Hermosa Beach, was surfing 50 yards away with his son when the fish was caught.

``It looked big enough to eat me,'' Cody said. ``Everyone thought it was a mako.''

Cody said he first wrote his story about Ulloa catching a mako shark, but when he showed a photo of the shark to a marine biologist, he identified it as a great white.

After Cody's revised story identifying the fish as a great white ran June 5, the paper received more than 100 e-mails critical of the angler and the paper for not mentioning great white sharks are protected.

California Department of Fish and Game officials received a number of tips about the illegal shark on its hotline, and game warden Rebecca Hartman, who has a degree in marine biology, investigated.

Ulloa had only kept the shark's jaws and fin, which Hartman seized and took to Christopher Lowe, assistant professor of biological sciences at Long Beach State, for positive identification.

``I looked at the jaws,'' said Lowe, a shark researcher. ``It was clearly a great white based on its teeth.''

Lowe said makos have distinctive dagger-like teeth. Juvenile great whites look a little like makos but have more girth and different coloration, with triangular, serrated teeth, according to Lowe.

``Anybody who fishes a lot will recognize a mako pretty quickly,'' Lowe said. ``But until you got it out of the water you might not be able to tell.''

This time of year, juvenile white sharks are commonly found inshore in Southern California and one or two are caught off the local piers every year, according to Lowe.

Great white sharks don't pose much of a threat to humans until they reach about 12 feet in length and their diet changes from smaller fish to marine mammals.

Lowe hopes better public education will lead people to realize that if they catch a shark from shore this time of year, there's a good possibility it's a baby white and should let it go.

Ulloa said the DFG wardens who contacted him couldn't tell for sure whether it was a white or mako shark.

``How can a regular guy who fishes the pier tell the difference if the Fish and Game officers cannot tell the difference?'' Ulloa said. ``It took an expert to tell the difference.''

This argument doesn't seem to carry weight with the DFG.

Hartman said because it's a state protected species, formal charges will be filed. The misdemeanor charges carry a maximum $1,000 fine and/or a six-month stay in county jail.