Men swim with hammerhead shark off Los Angeles coast

LOS ANGELES (KGO) -- A group of men fishing off the Los Angeles coast caught a close encounter with a hammerhead shark on camera.

The men were deep-sea fishing when they saw the shark.

Forrest Galante says he turned on the camera, put bait in the water to lure it closer and then jumped in with a friend.

In retrospect, he admits it wasn't the smartest thing he's ever done.

"Only when we hopped in the water, was it really evident that he was really fired up and he came straight in, you know to the point that we were pulling our fins in and keeping out limbs close to our body and within I don't know 45 seconds of jumping in the water with him, it went from him scoping us out to being right on top of us," Galante said.

The two men were able to climb back onto the boat safely.

Hammerhead sharks are not seen near Los Angeles very often, but experts think unusually warm water may be drawing them to the Southern California coast.