Shark!

A 66-year-old triathlete got killed by a shark on Friday off Solana Beach, where I lived for a year in college. Major news outlets disagree on whether it’s the first shark-attack death in Southern California since 1959 or 1994 or what. In San Francisco you count on at least one surfer per year appearing on the TV news, alive but in a cast, after getting chomped off a Marin beach; but the warmish south is a nursery for young sharks rather than a feeding ground for adults.

Surfline has details:

Local surfer Rob Blase was sitting in the lineup at Pillbox, just to the south, when the attack happened. “The group of triathletes swam straight out from the ramp at Pillbox,” said Blase. “They swam out towards the kelp beds and then headed north. They were maybe five minutes into their swim when I heard some screams. I heard the one guy yelling, “Shark!” By the time I was able to paddle to the swimmers, they were pulling him onto the beach and the lifeguards saw it too. They were on it, giving him CPR.”

Blase continued, “The top half of the bite was right above the kneecap level. They said the bite width was 22 inches across. It just shredded his wetsuit. From the time it happened until the time they brought him in, it was probably seven to eight minutes. But he was already as white as a ghost.”

More people get killed by elephants every year than by sharks, so these stories are a big deal.

But I’m skeptical about that death in 1994. AP seems to be misleading everyone by saying it was in San Diego County. This Malibu Longboards page places the 1994 death in “Central or Northern” California and the Ventura County Star says it was off San Miguel Island, in Central California, where the shark in question caught up with an unlucky abalone diver.

     posted 26 April 2008 by Michael Scott Moore

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