Santa Barbara Shark Attack: Shark Kills Swimmer, Closes California Beaches
 

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/211963/thu...TACK-large.jpg







LOS ANGELES — A bodyboarder killed by a shark at a Central California beach cried out to his friend for help as the shark flashed out of the water, bit into his leg and pulled him under in a tide of blood, the friend said Friday.
Matthew Garcia was surfing 2 feet from his friend, 19-year-old Lucas Ransom, when the shark attacked, he said. The whole incident lasted seconds.
"When the shark hit him, he just said, 'Help me, dude!' He knew what was going on," Garcia told The Associated Press. "It was really fast. You just saw a red wave and this water is blue – as blue as it could ever be – and it was just red, the whole wave."
As huge waves broke over his head, Garcia tried to find his friend in the surf but couldn't. He decided to get help, but turned around again as he was swimming to shore and saw Ransom's red bodyboard pop up. Garcia swam to his friend and did chest compressions as he brought him to shore.
Ransom already appeared dead and his leg was mauled, he said.
"He was just floating in the water. I flipped him over on his back and underhooked his arms. I was pressing on his chest and doing rescue breathing in the water," Garcia said. "He was just kind of lifeless, just dead weight."
The University of California, Santa Barbara, junior had a severe wound to his left leg and died a short time later at Surf Beach, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department said in a statement. The beach, 130 miles northwest of Los Angeles, is on the property of Vandenberg Air Force Base but is open to the public.
Sheriff's deputies patrolled the coastline to search for Ransom's missing leg but were only able to recover the boogie board, which had a 1-foot segment on the side bitten off.
Federal and state Fish and Game officials were working to identify the type of shark that attacked.

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RIP DUDE

Very sad, RIP. Be careful out there everyone!

Read about it yesterday at the shark research site. This article you posted is a tough read. Man..... Yes RIP.

Yeah, such a bummer:( But this is the inherent risk that we are willing to take when we paddle/swim out into the ocean.......we enter into their world and they unfortunately don't have fingers to touch and figure out what you are before taking a bite.....if you buy the mistake in identity theory............such a bummer when it happens

I don't buy it for a second. They'll eat whatever is available.

Hard read was a good description of the story. Very sad.

Friggen GWs. They should remove them from the no take list and put a bounty on them.

There is no shortage of seals... :biggrinjester:

You become part of a much larger food chain when you enter the ocean. RIP young man!

Friggen GWs. They should remove them from the no take list and put a bounty on them.[/QUOTE]


diasagree 100 %.......they serve an important role in the ecosystem and help keep the system healthy and balanced.......fortunately people get out and enjoy what they love to do and unfortunately end up at the wrong place at the wrong time.......does that mean we should go take the GW's out? I don't think so, just my .02
and no I don't support MLPA

Complete tragedy but it will continue to happen.

The tax man definitely has an important role. Anyone notice that the fur-bags were pretty much non-existent this summer??? :hmmmm:

Very sad. I bodyboard just about everyday, and the taxman always crosses my mind when entering the water. My heart goes out to the family. RIP

Using this thought process, we should make driving illegal as a lot of people die driving or being hit by cars. Include boats, motorcycles, and planes too as more people die in one year riding boats, motorcycles, and planes then GW's have killed in over 100 years.

Let's also include peanuts due to allergies causing death and food in general as people die from choking. Heck, make living illegal as day to day living is full of risks that can be fatal. :D

I wonder if this guy was wearing a seal-colored wet suit? That was the first thing that I thought of after reading this article. The guy who was killed in Solana Beach was wearing a black wetsuit.

I don't know anything about a shark's eyesight but if they can see colors they just might avoid something that does not look like their typical prey. Maybe someone should develop a line of wetsuits that sets surfers and swimmers apart from what a shark considers to be food.

Just a thought.

Bob

Great point.

Its not always food/prey related. My understanding of the Solana attack was that the victim somehow got between the mother GWS and its pup.

I'm not saying that this is what happened on this occasion but its not always because you look like a seal.

The attack was in the morning and based on the video, it looked like low-light, overcast/foggy conditions; prime GWS hunting conditions.

Bottom line, wrong place at the wrong time.

MythBusters

http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/myth...refer-red.html

OR

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmt5gF1fqZo

I have heard of several attacks on body boarders while surfers are in the water. I have always guessed that the swim fins and body board looks more like a seal than a surfer. Might not be the case, but certainly a possibility.

Like most surfers, I've heard the red/yellow shark attraction theory. Didn't pay much attention to it until I surfed reef shark infested waters on my red and yellow surfboard. The locals told me the small(6-10') sharks won't bother you as long as there are fish around smaller than you. When you don't see any fish, including the "small" sharks, mostly near deep water dropoffs, you should start to worry.
Most logical explanation I've heard is that most sharks, especially Great Whites, hunt from the "bottom up"; they cruise along the bottom looking up for prey, which is silhouetted against the sky. With that kind of lighting; everything is black, colors don't matter that much. If you've ever seen a surfer or bodyboarder with arms and legs dangling off the board, that silhouette is just about the same as a large seal, the shark's preferred prey.
It's just the chance you take when you jump in the ocean, easy to talk about, not so cool when somebody gets attacked.

GWS have nothing to do with their pups once they dump them.

Jim

Damn....wrong again. :o

I guess you all forgot about the tax man in the gray suit in LJ not so long ago....

I hunt alot, and have had encounters with Mountain lions, Bears ,rattlesnakes, coyotes, and unknown sharks. All within 20 feet less....

Sure opens your sences and eyes :eek:....

I would not have traded these things I have seen for anything...

It's there world , I'm just passing thru...

It's a bitchen place the outdoors enjoy it while you can. Lifes too short

I believe all preditors serve their purpose in the this world... It's just nice to have the upper hand..