Newport Beach, California: Shark caught leaping into the air near swimmers at popular beach

Beachgoers have been left shocked after a huge shark leaped out of the water near swimmers.

On July 25, Soaren Stevenson was filming his brother at a beach in Orange County, California, when he was taken by surprise.

While Mr Stevenson’s camera was fixed on his brother was boogie boarding at Newport Beach, in the background a large shark breached the water.

In video shared online, the shark can be seen launching itself vertically into the sky, before crashing back down into the water with a huge splash.

Marine biology professor and director of the California State University Long Beach Shark Lab Christopher Lowe told KTLA5 that he believed it was a juvenile great white shark in the video.

The Shark Lab has been monitoring shark activity in the area since 1966.

Professor Lowe theorised why the shark was jumping so high.

“Based on how they often jump and land on their sides or backs, I suspect they are jumping to dislodge parasites crawling on their sides and backs, relieving a case of the itchies,” he said.

“The only other reason I can think of is that they are jumping for fun.”

On the city of Newport Beach’s website, it says there has been a recent increase in shark activity in the area.

The same is true across the state of California, with many scientists blaming El Niño, according to The Guardian.

During the last El Niño in 2015, Professor Lowe told the publication Shark Lab saw “twice as many white sharks” in the state and they “couldn’t figure out why”.

However, since then, they have learnt the reason for the increase in Californian shark activity and the decrease in Mexico.

“When we have these El Niño conditions, it gets too warm, and the white sharks don’t like it,” Professor Lowe said.

“And it pushes them into California.”