Four women were in the water at a surf spot called “Church,” north of the San Onofre surf beach and in front of Camp Pendleton campgrounds, said state park aide Travis Lara. Two women were on surfboards, and the two other females were swimming nearby in the surf line up.
One of the women, who was wearing swim fins and wading in the water, was bit on her glute and down her thigh by a famished shark.
Two surfers pulled her out of the water and a person on the beach used a surf leash on her upper thigh to stop the bleeding.
The incident happened late afternoon. Lara didn’t know if the women’s injuries were life threatening or where she was being treated. It was also unclear what kind of shark attacked the woman and what size it was.
Well Travis, it was a hungry shark, that's what kind it was. And it was a "he" shark for sure, as he bit her on the most delicious, succulent parts.
And, get this, just recently this video was taken of a very large shark breaching at a beach just to the north of San O. Check it out:
That is not what one wants to see swimming in the same water.
Just last year, if you can believe this, a whale died of the SoCal coast, and as it was being towed away from shore (rotting corpse, you know), it and the boat towing it were attacked by at least seven great whites.
Check out the tooth marks on the boat!
They need a bigger boat!
And finally, way back in '96 a guy I went to middle school with was mauled by a 15 foot long great white over off Tomales Bay. That area, all the way out to the Farallon Islands, is famous for sightings of really huge great whites, who like to feed on the seals and sea lions, as well as the occasional seal impersonators in the form of abalone divers.
Moral of the story, if you go in the sea, it's like going into the jungle. You are not the apex predator. You are not even the beta predator. Behave accordingly.
I wonder if she was in her 'bleeding time' of the month?
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of great whites and other predatory shark types that run along the beach (sort of my turf). Usually they leave well enough alone.
But no, people are nowhere near the apex predator.
Likely this shark thought she was a seal as well.
ReplyDeleteHuman swimmers on the surface look a lot like seals from below the surface, even to human scuba divers. Especially in bright sunlight.
Reportedly sharks don't see that well, so the fact is that the shark probably got a taste and spat her out.