Was this year’s influx of great white sharks off San Clemente caused by the City Council’s refusal to erect a bigger-than-life statue of the late actor Paul Walker on the pier?

Councilman Tim Brown can’t say for sure. But he is suspicious.

As a result of those suspicions, you can visit San Clemente City Hall this summer and, on display, will be the next-best thing: A 1-foot-tall statue of the actor who died in a 2013 car crash, famous for his “Fast and the Furious” movie series.

Brown did a PowerPoint presentation at the end of Tuesday’s July 18 City Council meeting to show with bar graphs that the sharks’ appearance off San Clemente began to rise shortly after a rather memorable March 21 City Council meeting.

Two dudes calling themselves “freelance journalists” Chad Kroeger and Bodhi Johnson made an epic plea for the city to fund a statue of Walker on the end of the pier. A video of that council meeting went viral on the Internet.

Detroit has RoboCop, the dudes said. Philadelphia has Rocky. And San Clemente, they said, needs Paul Walker. They called the actor “a beacon of headlights to guide us down the dusty road.”

“I’m a big fan of Paul Walker, don’t get me wrong,” Brown replied to them, “but no. Sorry, bro.”

So in place of a 12-foot-statue on the pier, the city got 12-foot sharks, appearing around the pier. Or so it seems.

San Clemente experienced three shark alerts or beach closures in April, then 12 in May, Brown said.

“Is it a coincidence or is it a correlation?” he asked.

In June he decided to take charge of the city’s shark conundrum, as he called it.

He found the Paul Walker statue on eBay, purchased it and got a pedestal decorated with the city logo and the words, “For the gnarly times.”

Brown said the shark sightings then took a nosedive. He credited the statue.

“For anyone in San Clemente that is struggling,” he said, “I am going to leave this up in City Hall. Anyone who is struggling and needs a little inspiration can come up and hang out with Mr. Paul Walker.

“That is something that hopefully will keep the shark problem abated,” Brown said.

He thanked the two Paul Walker fans for showing up at the March 21 meeting to address the council. “That is the most viewed act we’ve ever had in these council chambers,” Brown said.