Rodrigo Abd / AP

A man is silhouetted in a wading pool as he cleans it out in the ocean waters off Agua Dulce beach in Lima, Peru.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

Beach goers wade on the shoreline of Agua Dulce beach, in Lima, Peru during summertime in the southern hemisphere.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

Karina Alvarado and David Enriquez pose for a picture with their daughter at Agua Dulce beach. For five Peruvian soles or about two U.S. dollars beach goers can pose for a photo in front of backdrops of their choice that include forest landscapes, exotic beach scenes or atop horses.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

Lifeguards attend to Belen Godinez on"Agua Dulce" beach after she was saved from drowning in the ocean in Lima, Peru.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

A woman snacks on mango fruit as her grandson plays nearby on Agua Dulce beach in Lima, Peru.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

Adela Cabrera, 19, poses for a picture on a horse at Agua Dulce beach in Lima, Peru. For five Peruvian soles or about two U.S. dollars beach goers can pose for a photo to record their day at the beach.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

A man opens a can of peaches on Agua Dulce beach in Lima, Peru.

While Lima's elite spend their summer weekends in gated beach enclaves south of the Peruvian capital, the working class jams by the thousands on a single municipal beach of grayish-brown sands and gentle waves.

Until the mid-20th century, Lima's lower classes couldn't afford beach-going, said Juan Pacheco, a historian of the city. Road-building to the coast solved that, and the rich began to largely abandon Lima's beaches to the poorer set.

Now, the only barrier to entry to Agua Dulce beach is two dollars, the price of bus fare to get there and home.

On some weekends during the Southern Hemisphere summer, which runs from December until March, as many as 40,000 people a day visit the half-mile-long strip of beach. They arrive in groups of 20-30, hauling enormous pots of fragrant chicken and rice.
– Associated Press

Editor’s Note: The images for this blog post were shot from January to March, but made available to NBC News today.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

A man walks along the shoreline next to a message in the sand that reads in Spanish "I love you Alfonzo,

This story was originally published on Thu Mar 21, 2013 1:29 PM EDT

William West / AFP - Getty Images

A swimmer stops short of a red algae bloom at Sydney's Clovelly Beach on Tuesday. Clovelly and Bondi beaches were closed to swimmers.

Sydney's iconic Bondi Beach and Clovelly Beach were closed to swimmers on Tuesday as a red algae bloom drifted close to shore, Agence France-Presse reports.

While the red algae, known as Noctiluca scintillans or sea sparkle, has no toxic effects, people are still advised to avoid swimming in areas with discolored water because the algae, which can be high in ammonia, can cause skin irritation. 

"It has got quite a fishy smell to it," lifeguard Bruce Hopkins told the Australian Associated Press. "It can irritate some people's skin but generally not much more than that."

William West / AFP - Getty Images

A boy walks along Sydney's Clovelly Beach on Tuesday.

William West / AFP - Getty Images

A seagull stands in a red algae bloom at Sydney's Clovelly Beach on Tuesday.

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Joe Raedle / Getty Images

Artist Meredith Corson puts the finishing touches on a sand sculpture of the White House behind the Bilmar Beach Resort in Treasure Island, Fla., Aug. 23. The resort is also constructing sand sculptures of Abraham Lincoln & the Lincoln Memorial to coincide with the Republican National Convention, which starts in Tampa, Fla., next week.

Joe Raedle / Getty Images

The front door of the White House sand sculpture

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A woman holds her baby as Palestinians enjoy a day at a beach during Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, on August 21, 2012 in Tel Aviv, Israel. According to Israel's coordinator for government activities in the territories, Israel has allowed the entry of over 1 million Palestinians from the occupied West Bank since the beginning of Ramadan due to improved security.

Oded Balilty / AP

Israeli Arabs enjoy the beach in Tel Aviv during the third day of Eid al-Fitr on August 21, 2012.

Oded Balilty / AP

Israeli Arab women in the sea off Tel Aviv on August 21, 2012.

One of the most important holidays in the Muslim world, Eid al-Fitr is marked with prayers, family reunions and other festivities, The Associated Press reports.

See more images from Eid and Ramadan on PhotoBlog

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A first-time kayaker had a close encounter with a great white shark off the coast of Massachusetts over the weekend.

Sunbathers first spotted the shark following two kayakers on Saturday afternoon off Nauset Beach, the Cape Cod Times reported, and yelled to the men offshore.

One of the kayakers saw the shark and quickly paddled in, while it took the other one, Walter Szulc Jr., of Manchester, N.H., a little while longer to notice the dorsal fin just feet away from him.

“There were hundreds of people on the beach, and they were all at the edge, yelling paddle paddle, paddle!” Dave Alexander told the NBC News affiliate in Boston, WHDH.com.

Szulc said when he looked behind him, the shark "was pretty much right there."

"It was good-sized, it had a fin sticking out, so I just turned and paddled," he told WHDH.com. It was the first time Szulc had kayaked.

Since June 30, three sharks have been seen plying the waters off Cape Cod for food, the Cape Cod Times reported. The large number of seals in the area is believed to be drawing the sharks.

Orleans Harbormaster Dawson Farber said he and his team went out in a boat to confirm the sighting – he noted the shark was an estimated 12 to 14 feet long -- and they had all bathers get out of the water. The beach was also closed.

“Everyone was very relaxed and the shark put on quite a show moving back and forth out in front of the beach, but it was done in a very orderly fashion,” Farber told ABC News.

Witness Debbie Sutton said Szulc “started booking it.”

“You could see the darkness of it,” she told WHDH.com. “It was longer than the kayak … it was crazy big.”

Not all beachgoers were scared by the great white. Some even got into the water at the beach later in the day.

"Everyone wanted to see it," Karen O'Connell of Medfield told the Cape Cod Times. "There were people running toward it."

The last shark attack on a human in the area was in 1936, when a man was killed swimming near Mattapoisett, the newspaper reported.

In central California on Saturday, a shark lifted up a man's kayak, throwing him into the water. The man was rescued by a boater, but the shark bit the kayak, damaging it, according to NBCBayArea.com. In May, two kayakers escaped a great white in California, though the shark gouged one of the kayaks, leaving a 20-inch long and 22-inch wide hole, local media reported.

In 2011, there were 75 unprovoked shark attacks on humans, with 35 percent of those happening in U.S. waters, according to the International Shark Attack File. That number was down from 81 in 2010.

The total number of unprovoked global shark attacks has grown since 1900, the group said, noting that did not necessarily mean there was an increase in the rate of attacks, but that people were spending more time in the water, increasing the chances for interactions between the two.

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Andrew Mills / The Star-Ledger

Asbury Park firefighter Brett Nielson pauses as he prepares to enter the surf to search for the body of a 23-year-old man who disappeared while swimming after lifeguards had gone off duty yesterday. The body was recovered after a short search by divers.

Andrew Mills / The Star-Ledger

Asbury Park firefighters, NJ State Police Troopers and US Coast Guard personnel work to recover a body about 200 yards offshore at the 2nd Avenue beach in Asbury Park where a 23-year-old man disappeared while swimming after lifeguards had gone off duty yesterday.

Jim Gold, msnbc.com -- One swimmer who vanished off the New Jersey shore was found drowned Thursday morning while the search continued for a second caught by rip currents.

Both incidents occurred at beaches where no lifeguards were on duty.

Garrett Giberson, public information officer for the Asbury Park fire department, told NJ.com, website of the Star-Ledger newspaper. “Basically the bottom line is this: When lifeguards are off duty, stay out of the water. Rip tides are dangerous and obviously deadly. It's not worth your life."

Read the full story.

See more images of search and rescue efforts in the Star-Ledger's photo gallery.

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