This just in: Fatal shark attack off San Diego coast

[cboy4]

Source: ABC-7 Los Angeles

By Karen Kucher
UNION-TRIBUNE BREAKING NEWS TEAM

and Terry Rodgers
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

10:06 a.m. April 25, 2008


EDUARDO CONTRERAS / Union-Tribune

SOLANA BEACH – A swimmer was killed Friday morning after a shark attack off Fletcher Cove, officials said.

Sheriff's deputies said they were called at 7:20 a.m. to aid the man. A helicopter initially was sent to take the man to a hospital, but he was pronounced dead on the beach.

The swimmer, who was believed to be in his 50s, was attacked as he was swimming about 150 yards offshore, lifeguard officials said.

The man was swimming with a group of about 10 other swimmers, heading north from Fletcher Cove, when the attack occurred. The group regularly swims at the cove.





Read more: http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/state&id=6103558

---

Note to self.

No more swimming at Solana next time I'm in S.D.

[kenny blankenship]

1. News Flash: There are still fish in the sea!

[Supersedeas]

8. shark attacks and Wesley Snipe coverage -- must be a seasonal thing

[Dr.Phool]

20. Shark couldn't buy rice at Costco.

Goes on food riot.

[YOY]

2. Man goes in the cage.

Cage goes in the water.

Shark is in the water.

Our shark.

WE'RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BOAT!

[onehandle]

18. Great actor.

[kestrel91316]

21. You DID know there is a "Peeps" version of Jaws for the

true afficionado, right? Complete with "We're gonna need a bigger boat!".


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezScWcym1AY

[onehandle]

26. Ohmigod! That's fantastic!

Sending this to my wife who loves Jaws and Peeps.

Thanks!

[kestrel91316]

29. I laughed hysterically at that for half an hour..........

[AlCzervik]

3. no swimming at dusk or dawn and don't wear shiny things. Sad story.

[JeanGrey]

32. If you wear a black wetsuit in areas where seals and sea lions

are abundant and had been beaching themselves the day or so before, considering how much YOU look like one of them, I'd suggest staying out of the damn water.

I made a deal with them long ago - I stay out of their ocean, they stay out of my house.

[havocmom]

4. Keep sharp eyes for the news dump hiding behind this one today

Would be a good day for cheney to send out the trash. Heads up, DU.

[woodsprite]

17. Cheney's probably incognito at the "Shredder" event in Philly.

I kid you not - it's where you can take your personal info trash to be shredded at some hotel in Philly.

The dead givaway would be a whole bunch of guys in dark suits with black glasses and ear pieces standing there, each holding a box.

[slackmaster]

5. Get out of the water and don't look back!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dumRQBXmC98

[XOKCowboy]

6. Whew...

I've got a good friend in SD who surfs every day. He's nowhere near 50 though...

I don't know that I remember any shark incidents around SD. Is this an isolated incident?

[cboy4]

9. It sounds like it....

Witnesses told lifeguards that a “big gray shark” attacked the man, biting both his legs, said Craig Miller, a Solana Beach lifeguard.

“I can't remember a shark ever being in this area before,” Miller said.

[AlCzervik]

11. a couple of years ago a free diver was killed but i think it was near Mavericks.

this is the first i've heard though in SD.

[kenny blankenship]

12. It seems to be rare - BUT there are SEALS around S. Diego

Sharks eat seals. Swimming around seals, way offshore too - I wouldn't do that.

[XOKCowboy]

16. That was my thought too...

After seeing all the seals around La Jolla. Looked like shark dinner to me.

[frogcycle]

7. well that bites n/t

[cboy4]

10. It's not funny.

:thumbsdown:

[greiner3]

13. My son in law is 23!

[AlCzervik]

15. congratulations?

[Kajsa]

14. That's awful!

A wetsuit on a human can look like a seal
to a shark.

This time of year, a wetsuit is necessary to
swim in the waters off our SoCal coast.

:(

[Hulk]

19. Shit happens....

Sad but true. You swim where the sharks swim, and this is a possibility. It's sort of like camping where the wild bears are. Then we are stunned and outraged when we hear about some person getting mauled by a bear?

I'm sorry folks. Too bad for the swimmer, but that's life. Shit happens.

[Skittles]

36. that's why I don't swim where I become part of the food chain n/t

[Tangerine LaBamba]

22. Do you recall ........

....... that the last time shark attacks were the big story, something else happened to knock our finned friends out of the headlines?

9/11/2001.

[slackmaster]

24. Pretty much true

http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/09/04/shark.attacks/

Of course Labor Day Weekend shark attacks on US coasts are not unusual.

[TheWatcher]

27. Dejavu All over again.

Will we fall for it again?

[Tangerine LaBamba]

28. I wonder

Ever since 9/11, I've been looking for the pattern. Is this another beginning?

I wonder.

[kestrel91316]

23. We do have Great Whites off the CA coast. Not real often down

this far south, but I am reminded of a probable fatal GWS attack on a kayaker off the Malibu coast maybe 15-20 years ago. Kayaker disappeared, kayak found, bite marks measured >>>>>>>> GWS done it.

[JeanGrey]

33. Sure you do. They are always there. I have a good friend

Lifeguard, oceangraphic study, etc. He told me if people really knew the large amount of big sharks that are ALWAYS around they'd never get in the water. Seals and sea lions had been beaching themselves previous to this so getting in a black wetsuit in a group wasn't smart.

Now that the seals/lions are protected the whites go where the food is and it is certainly there.

[kestrel91316]

34. I basically haven't been into the SoCal water ONCE since

that business with the kayaker. I KNEW there was more of a shark presence than they were letting on.

Sharks, or just the idea of them, scare the living daylights out of me. I was so scared after seeing Jaws in 1975 I wouldn't go in my parents' swimming pool after dusk alone - I kid you not.

[JeanGrey]

37. Great whites are everywhere. Since the seal population

exploded they are their natural food. I can't imagine ANYONE putting on a black wetsuit and going into waters where big sharks and their food exists.

[merwin]

25. Sharks patrol these waters, Don't let your fingers dangle in the water.

And don't you worry about the day glow orange life per server
It won't save you, It won't save you.

http://www.metrolyrics.com/sharks-lyrics-morphine.html

[sofa king]

30. What, is this the summer of 2001?

Anyone else remember that bullshit?

SharkattackSharkattackSharkattackSharkattackSharkattackbushbreaksthelawagainSharkattackSharkattack.

[JeanGrey]

31. This didn't have to happen. I also read that seals and sea lions

had been BEACHING THEMSELVES in the same area. They had to call Sea World to deal with it.
So yes, we allow a group of people, all wearing black wetsuits, to swim in this same area. Guy gets killed. My god, what a shock!

We're really stupid sometimes...........................

By the way the bite radius was 22 inches, possibly an 18 footer or bigger. The witnesses said he was hit so hard from below he was lifted out of water and then shook. Probably never knew what hit him, at least I hope to God.

Anytime I see large animals rushing headlong to beach themselves, that is water I don't wander into.

[kestrel91316]

35. Well, he screamed, "Shark!! Shark!!" so I am pretty sure he knew what

hit him.

[JeanGrey]

38. That is probably the last sound he made.

They probably never even saw it coming.

[bitchkitty]

39. R.I.P. and I hope

this horrible death cancels all his bad karma, and that his next life will be unbelievably abundant and happy.

I cannot imagine the FEAR. I am deathly afraid of bears and sharks.