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A swimmer off the coast of the San Francisco Bay Area was bitten by a great white shark, officials said Saturday, leaving the man in serious condition.
The sting victim, a 35-year-old man, was swimming in the Pacific Ocean off San Mateo County when he was bitten in the right leg around 9:15 a.m. by a shark, estimated to be 6 to 8 feet in length.
“The man was able to swim ashore and medical help was called,” the San Mateo County Sheriff’s office said in a tweet, and was taken to Stanford Hospital.
Firefighters said the man was in serious condition when he was taken to the casualty center and treated with advanced life support procedures.
The sting occurred off Gray Whale Cove State Beach, about 15 miles southwest of downtown San Francisco. The beach was ordered closed.
Perhaps the attacking shark was a juvenile. Great white sharks, also known as white sharks, are 4 to 5 feet long at birth and are considered juveniles until they are about 10 feet long, when they reach maturity, according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. It can grow up to 21 feet in length.
The state said a white shark captured off Point Vicente, near the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles, in 1986, was 17.6 feet long and weighed 4,140 pounds.
The state said shark attacks are extremely rare in California. There have been 76 documented shark attacks resulting in casualties since 1950 in California. This results in fewer than two shark attacks each year resulting in infestations over the past 71 years.
The state recorded a fatal shark attack in California in the 1920s. two in 2010; three in the 2000s; One in the ’90s and three in the ’80s.
Scientists consider southern California a nursery ground for great white sharks. Pregnant sharks are more likely to give birth in relatively calm, warmer waters off shore, and baby sharks spend a lot of time in shallow waters,” says the Department of Fish and Wildlife. The young feed abundantly on stingrays and other small fish during periods of warm water. When they grow As they mature, the sharks move to other areas and into cooler waters, where seals and sea lions are more abundant.”
Great white sharks are one of the major predators of the oceans and play an important role in the ecosystem by eating seals and sea lions, according to the state. Officials say the small white sharks are often seen in shallow sea waters near the Southern California coast, especially in summer and when the ocean waters are warm.
“There is only one foolproof way to avoid shark attack: to stay out of the ocean,” the state says on its website. Scientists agree that most white shark attacks on humans are unintentional—the shark is mistaken for a seal or a sea lion. Swimming is not recommended in areas where sharks have been seen or where white sharks have been seen feeding on marine mammals.”
A recent study published in Scientific Reports reported that there was an increase in white sharks observed in Monterey Bay, 60 miles southeast of the site of Saturday’s shark attack.
Farther south, in southern California, recent drone footage has shown that the presence of baby sharks is perfectly normal, and for most of the year, they are along the California coast from San Diego to Point Conception in Santa Barbara County.
Most surfers have always considered it unlikely that a great white shark would catch surf spots. But the advent of drone photography has gutted that idea, showing how often swimmers and surfers get close to sharks. However, few attacks occur, which indicates an unusually low risk.
Notably, even as more people have taken to surfing in California over the decades — surfing, swimming and diving — shark attacks have not increased proportionally, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Times Team Writer Joe Mozingo contributed to this report.
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