In an unprecedented move, Del Mar Lifeguards have closed beaches for swimming and surfing after a shark attack at 9 a.m. Sunday, June 2, about 100 yards offshore. In all my years of surfing and boogie boarding, have never heard of beaches being closed in Del Mar due to sharks. They will remain closed until 9 am on Tuesday, June 4.
From the Del Mar Times:
The 46-year-old male victim was transported by ambulance to Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla with injuries that are significant but not believed to be life-threatening. The injuries included bites to the torso, left arm and hand.
The victim was in a group of about a dozen ocean swimmers who meet regularly to train in Del Mar.
In accordance with protocols developed by the California Marine Safety Chiefs Association and the Shark Lab at California State University Long Beach, lifeguards have posted signs and closed Del Mar beaches for swimming and surfing one mile in both directions from the incident—roughly from 6th Street to North Beach—and have notified neighboring jurisdictions.
The water closure will remain in effect through 9 a.m. June 4, the news release stated.
This is actually the 2nd shark attack in Del Mar in the last few years. 2022 I think it was? Another (possible) juvenile Great White if I remember correctly.
We surfers (especially those of us who are watermen not just surface surfers) absolutely know that there are sharks everywhere because we see them when diving etc. Or take a drone look down at any beachbreak with clear water and you’ll see them swimming around and through people that are standing in the shallows. Sharks avoid them quite carefully.
We are not their usual prey. Obviously since this shark would have come back for the rest of the meal. Ewww, what a nasty flavor we have, eh?
It is far more dangerous to life and limb driving to the store. Order of magnitude more dangerous.
In the mountains I have lived in, it’s been cougars and bears, porcupines, bobcats, huge coyote packs, wolves, timber rattlers, and up here I got to add in the enormous moose to the equation that have the personality of a bad-hair-day badger (which means stinking bad if you don’t know badgers!). And a moose will run you down and stomp all over you just because, worse if there’s a baby around. Along with black/cinnamon bears there are now grizzlies slowly trickling back in up here, too. One thing I do is bell my dogs on hikes, or myself if the dogs aren’t along. That at least gives warning to other critters that we’re coming.
But so far there isn’t any way to warn off a shark yet that I’ve heard of.
Surfing NorCal for years (late 90s-2004) I saw my share of big fins and long wide gray shapes going by underwater off Eureka jetty, Camel Rock in Trinidad, etc. I guess I didn’t look like a seal to them! Obviously this guy who just got bit wasn’t lunch either or it would have circled back.
sealintheSelkirks
Update: The last shark bite reported in Del Mar occurred on Nov. 4, 2022, roughly in the same area as Sunday’s attack. In that case, a 50-year-old woman out swimming with a friend was bitten on her upper thigh. She was hospitalized and treated for punctures and lacerations.