SD Shark Attack, 1st Ld
Date: 11-04-2022 6:18 PM - Word Count: 598

SD Shark Attack, 1st Ld
   Swimmer Injured in Apparent Shark Attack in Del Mar
   Eds: ADDS background on prior San Diego-area shark attacks; Edelbrock
can be reached at 858-755-1556.
   DEL MAR (CNS) - A swimmer was injured today in an apparent shark
attack off the coast of Del Mar.
   The 50-year-old woman suffered leg wounds that were not believed to be
life-threatening while swimming with a companion about 100 yards from shore
near the terminus of 17th Street at about 10 a.m., said Jon Edelbrock, Del
Mar's lifeguard chief.
   After lifeguards helped the victim to shore and provided first aid,
paramedics took her to Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla, where she was
admitted in stable condition.
   Lifeguards then searched the water for sharks, finding none.
   Though officials could not immediately confirm that the woman's
injuries were due to a shark, it appeared to be the case, Edelbrock said.
   ``She was fairly (sure) that she saw a shark,'' he said.
   It was unclear what species or size of shark it might have been.
   A two-mile stretch of the beach in the area will be closed through at
least Sunday as a precaution due to the incident, according to city officials.
Lifeguards will perform drone flyovers and patrol the area throughout the
weekend from dawn until dusk in search of sharks, they advised.
   The presumed attack occurred five days after the carcass of an 8-foot
juvenile great white shark that appeared to have been injured by a large
fishing hook washed ashore at Torrey Pines State Beach in San Diego,
authorities said.
   Serious shark attacks remain fairly rare in the San Diego area, though
a handful have occurred in recent years.
   On Sept. 29, 2018, 13-year-old Keane Hayes of Encinitas was mauled by
a great white shark while lobster diving off the coast of his coastal hometown.
Though critically injured, the boy recovered following surgery for a wound that
stretched over the left side of his body and head, from his upper back and
torso to his arm and the side of his face, his physicians told reporters.
   On April 29, 2017, 35-year-old Leeanne Ericson of Vista was gravely
injured in a shark attack as she swam in the surf about an hour before sunset
off the coast of San Onofre Beach on the grounds of Camp Pendleton. Though the
sea predator tore off much of her right buttocks and thigh, Ericson survived.
   The most recent recorded local fatal shark encounter took place on the
morning of April 25, 2008, when a great white attacked 66-year-old retired
veterinarian and fitness aficionado David Martin of Solana Beach as he swam
with fellow triathletes near a surf spot known as Table Tops, south of San
Elijo Lagoon.
   The attack left Martin's legs nearly severed. He was pronounced dead
at a nearby lifeguard station about an hour later.
   Martin's death may have been the first fatal San Diego-area shark
attack since April 1994, when the shark-ravaged body of 25-year-old Michelle
Von Emster washed ashore at Sunset Cliffs, south of Ocean Beach. The county
Medical Examiner's Office ruled that she had died of a shark attack.
   However, several experts, including Richard Rosenblatt, professor
emeritus of marine biology at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, opined at
the time that Von Emster might have drowned before sharks found and fed on her
body.
   Prior to that incident, the last recorded deadly shark attack in San
Diego County occurred offshore from La Jolla in 1959, according to the Florida
Museum of Natural History's Shark File.
   Copyright 2022, City News Service, Inc.

CNS-11-04-2022 18:18