Not sure what exactly the mystery is here. It’s obviously a Great White. There aren’t many types of sharks that are 18 feet long. And the witness said it was grey on the top and white on the bottom…

(CBS/AP)  The huge shark that attacked and killed a body-surfer off the central California coast may have been a great white, a spokesman for the local sheriff’s office says.

The victim, Lucas Ransom, 19, was body-boarding two feet away from his friend, Matthew Garcia, who was surfing. Garcia says he heard a desperate cry for help. Within seconds, a shark flashed out of the water, bit into Ransom’s leg and pulled him under in a cloud of blood.

“When the shark hit him, he just said, ‘Help me, dude!’ He knew what was going on,” Garcia told the Associated Press as he recounted his friend’s death. “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 Lucas Ransom 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 body-board pop up. Garcia swam to his friend and did chest compressions as he brought him to shore.

The 19-year-old 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 under-hooked 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 on 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, in Lompoc, Calif., 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 body-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 Ransom.

“The size of the teeth and the width (of the bite in the body-board) are going to help the experts determine what kind of shark this is,” Drew Sugars, of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, told co-anchor Chris Wragge on “The Early Show on Saturday Morning.” “We have not determined the type. The witness (Garcia) did say that the top of the shark was gray, the bottom was white. This is typically a great white, but we’re not in a position to confirm that, Hopefully, by Monday, we’ll be able to determine what type of shark this is, but the teeth marks will help us in that determination.”

Sugars says officials hope the shark itself “is long gone. We’re not going to search for it at this point.”

As is protocol at Vandenberg, he adds, the beach involved will be closed for three days. Nearby beaches have warning signs posted but remain open.

The ocean was calm and beautiful before the attack, with large wave sets that the friends had been tracking all week as they moved down the West Coast from Alaska, Garcia said.

The shark, which breached the water on its side, appeared about 18 feet long, Garcia said.

“There was no sign, there was nothing. It was all very fast, very stealth,” said Garcia, 20.

Authorities have issued several warnings this year after great white shark sightings up and down the California coast.

There have been nearly 100 shark attacks in California since the 1920s, including a dozen that were fatal, according to the California Department of Fish and Game. But attacks have remained relatively rare even as the population of swimmers, divers and surfers sharing the waters has soared.

The last shark attack on Surf Beach was in 2008, when what was believed to be a great white shark bit a surfer’s board. The surfer was not harmed.

The last fatal attack in California was that same year, when triathlete David Martin, 66, bled to death after a great white shark bit his legs about 150 yards off of a San Diego County beach.

Randy Fry, 50, died from a great white attack in 2004 while diving off the coast of Mendocino, north of San Francisco Bay.

In 2003, a great white shark killed Deborah Franzman, 50, as she swam at Avila Beach, about 30 miles north of Vandenberg.

via Killer Shark May Have Been Great White – The Early Show – CBS News.

LOS ANGELES — A 19-year-old surfer was killed Friday in a rare shark attack a short distance off a California beach, when the animal pulled him under and inflicted a “massive wound,” police said.

Authorities closed local beaches for 72 hours after the attack by a shark described as up to 20 feet (6.1 meters) long.

The victim, identified as Lucas McKaine Ransom, “was boogie boarding on the break line about 100 yards off the beach with his friend when a shark suddenly pulled Ransom under the water,” said an updated statement.

“Ransom suffered a massive wound to his left leg and appeared to die shortly thereafter,” added the the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, noting that witnesses said the shark was between “14 and 20 feet (4.3-6.1 meters) long.”

The attack occurred at Surf Beach at Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) near Santa Barbara, which is some 130 miles (215 kilometers) northwest up the Pacific coast from Los Angeles.

“Following standard protocol, VAFB has ordered the closure of all base beaches… for the next 72 hours,” while local authorities are posting warning signs at nearby beaches.

Earlier police had said the victim was in his early 20s and was in the water with a friend at the time of the attack. Officials were “working to identify the type of shark,” they added.

The last death of this kind involved a great white shark in California in 2008, when a 66-year-old man was attacked as he swam with friends off a beach in San Diego.

via AFP: California surfer killed in rare shark attack: officials.

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif.  — The victim of a fatal shark attack at a beach northwest of Los Angeles cried out to his friend for help as the shark flashed out of the water with no warning, bit into his leg and pulled him under in a tide of red blood, the friend said Friday.

Matthew Garcia was two feet away from his friend, 19-year-old Lucas Ransom, when the shark attacked with no warning, he said. The whole attack lasted seconds while the pair were bodyboarding about 100 yards from the shore.

“When the shark hit him, he just said, ‘Help me, dude!’ He knew what was going on,” Garcia told the AP. “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. Even the barrel was red.”

Lucas Ransom, shown in a 2007 photo from Murrieta, Calif., was killed in a shark attack Friday while boogie-boarding at a Vanderberg Air Force Base beach near Lompoc Calif.

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 once more as he was swimming to shore and saw Ransom’s red body board 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.

advertisement | ad info

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.

Ransom was from Romoland in Riverside County, in southern California.

Federal and state Fish and Game officials were working to identify the type of shark that attacked Ransom. -

Officials closed three beaches after the shark attack.

Airman 1st Class Daniel Clark, left, and Staff Sgt. Keri Embry, post a sign warning surfers of a recent shark attack Friday at Vandenburg Air Force Base, Calif.

The victim was a University of California, Santa Barbara student studying chemical engineering.

Federal and state Fish and Game officials were working to identify the type of shark that attacked. It was described by witnesses as being 14 to 20 feet in length.

Officials at Vandenberg closed Surf, Wall and Minuteman beaches for at least 72 hours, Lt. Ann Blodzinski told the Santa Barbara Independent.

In September 2008, base officials issued a 48-hour warning to beach users after a shark bit a surfer’s board at Surf Beach, according to the Santa Maria Times.

Base officials said at the time that they believed it was the first shark incident off Vandenberg, the newspaper reported.

Fatal shark attacks are rare in the area. A great white shark killed a woman in 2003 at Avila Beach, about 30 miles north of Vandenberg.

Great whites also killed two men in 2004 and 2008 at beaches in Mendocino and San Diego counties.

via Shark attack: Friend describes fatal scene – U.S. news – Life – msnbc.com.

Authorities have closed several beaches in Santa Barbara County after a deadly shark attack Friday morning near the coastal town of Surf.Officials at Vandenberg Air Force Base told The Times that they have closed Surf, Wall and Minuteman beaches for 72 hours due to the attack.[Updated at 11:56 p.m.: A base spokesman said the Santa Barbara County coroners investigators are at the beach and that the investigation is being handled in conjunction with the Santa Barbara County Sheriffs Department.]The Santa Maria Times reported that a body surfer was fatally bitten by a shark. The paper said the body surfer was not connected with the military base.Surf is located north of Santa Barbara and west of Lompoc on the Vandenberg Air Force Base.

via Shark fatally attacks body surfer in Santa Barbara County; beaches closed [Updated] | L.A. NOW | Los Angeles Times.

When Jack Musick heard that a teen had been bitten while surfing off Sandbridge last month, he immediately got to work trying to pin down the culprit.

Could it have been a bull shark?

Probably not, concluded Musick, a professor emeritus at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science who investigates shark attacks. They’re uncommon in Virginia.

How about a sandbar shark?

Not likely. They’re not very active and prefer to feed in deeper water.

Maybe a blacktip shark?

Bingo. According to Musick’s report, which he’s submitted to the International Shark Attack File in Florida, the attacker was probably a small blacktip or spinner shark, maybe even two.

Those species often visit Virginia’s waters in September, he wrote. They’re also active feeders and have been implicated in similar nonfatal attacks here, in Florida and elsewhere. The circumstances also fit, Musick said.

Caleb Kauchak, 18, was wading in chest-deep water next to his surfboard the afternoon of Sept. 24 when something latched onto his ankle, shook him and let go. He jumped onto his board and felt another bite, on his knee.

He needed 51 stitches. While his injuries have healed almost completely, the scars still draw lots of attention, Kauchak said.

The attack – in murky water during the time of day when sharks start to feed – was most likely a case of mistaken identity, Musick said. The shark probably thought Kauchak’s leg was a fish, and let go when it realized its mistake, he said.

“The shark was too small for it to have been a predatory attack,” Musick said. “Also, if that had been a large shark, the damage would’ve been a lot greater. It probably would have removed a limb or something.”

Shark attacks are rare in Virginia. In 2001, however, a shark fatally attacked a 10-year-old Richmond boy as he surfed with his father off Sandbridge, not far from where Kauchak was bitten. A 9-1/2 foot bull shark is believed responsible.

Whatever bit Kauchak was much smaller.

Blacktip sharks can get up to 5 feet 9 inches long and tend to live in shallow coastal waters from New England to Florida, according to the Virginia Institute of Marine Science website. Spinners can grow up to 9 feet 10 inches long and visit southern Virginia’s waters on occasion.

Those two species have been linked to 58 attacks on humans in the past 50 years, according to estimates by the International Shark Attack File, which tracks all shark bites worldwide. One, in 1973 involving a teen being bitten in the elbow while snorkeling and spearing crabs south of Sandbridge, was similar to the attack on Kauchak, Musick said.

With just three or four shark attacks in Virginia in the past 40 years, and millions of people in the water here over the years, Musick said the “probability of a shark encounter is miniscule.”

via Attack in Va. Beach was likely from 1 of 2 shark species | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com.

Navy diver who lost hand and part of his leg to a bull shark says he’s got over his fears.

Whether it’s an intense horror or a niggling doubt, most Australian beachgoers have had thoughts of a lurking grey shadow with a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth while out enjoying the ocean.

Navy diver Paul De Gelder, who lost a hand and part of one leg when a bull shark attacked him in Sydney Harbour last year, says such unwelcome fears are behind him now.

He says he now has absolutely no fear of sharks because lightning shouldn’t strike twice.

Advertisement: Story continues below

“Before the shark attack, sharks used to be on my mind all the time, to the point where when I was doing my diving course all the guys used to bring in photos of great whites to try and scare the crap out of me,” he told AAP.

“Now it just doesn’t worry me.”

De Gelder was attacked in the early hours of February 11, 2009, while on a training exercise at Garden Island. The able seaman was swimming along on his back when he felt a massive whack in his leg.

“I looked down and had a bloody shark head attached to me,” he said.

“I couldn’t really reach the eye ball so I gave it a whack in the nose, which I think just pissed it off.”

After nine weeks in hospital, numerous surgeries and a gruelling rehab schedule, De Gelder was back in the water within months without fear of the beast that had tried to make him its dinner.

Getting back into surfing has proved a tougher mission.

“Even though I’d been out surfing a lot, I really hadn’t been getting any better and it was really frustrating,” he said.

But that all changed when he was approached to feature in a new lifestyle show, Manly Surf.

De Gelder will star in the first episode of the show when it premieres on Ten’s digital sports channel One HD next week.

He is featured telling his story, stressing he has no hatred for sharks. In fact, he’s just returned from a trip to the United Nations where he and other shark attack survivors were campaigning to protect the species.

Presented by seven-times world surfing champion and Manly local Layne Beachley, the show revolves around Manly Surf School director Matt Grainger, his team of instructors and the people they meet at the school.

Among the entertaining bunch touched by the surf experience are an 80-year-old grandmother taking her first lesson, indigenous children from the outback who have never seen the ocean before, and Sydney Swans players swapping the ball for the board.

Manly Surf (www.manlysurftv.com.au) premieres nationally on Wednesday, October 20 at 8pm on One HD.

via Sydney Harbour shark victim tells of attack.

COOS BAY — An Oregon man says a great white shark knocked him off his surfboard near Winchester Bay.

David Lowden told “The World” newspaper in Coos Bay that he was paddling his board last week near the south jetty of the Umpqua River when a shark he estimated at nearly 14 feet broke the surface behind him.

“As I’m flying off the board, I got a good look at the shape of the shark,” said Lowden, who was not injured in the encounter.

The shark emerged halfway from the water and broke the fins off his surfboard.

“That probably scared it a bit. It thrashed around a bit … and after that it disappeared,” he said.

Lowden, 29, and another man surfed to the beach while a third surfer, Lowden’s friend, Mark Lorincz, of North Bend, clambered onto the jetty and ditched his board.

Lowden phoned the U.S. Coast Guard to report the encounter, then contacted the Shark Research Committee, a private group that tracks shark attack data.

A release from that organization characterized it as an “unprovoked shark attack.” It was the only recorded attack this year in Oregon, and the fifth along the Pacific Coast.

Alan Shanks, a professor at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology in Charleston, said the encounter described by Lowden is typical shark behavior.

Shanks said great white sharks often attack from below to stun seals, sea lions and other large prey.

“These guys are primarily big-thing eaters,” Shanks said. “A surfboard from below has a silhouette not unlike a marine mammal.”

Lowden said local surfers frequently see sharks. He has spotted six sharks while surfing on the Oregon coast, including one that bumped his board in 2006.

“I wasn’t that surprised, to tell you the truth,” Lowden said. “It’s not the first time I’ve had an encounter.”

via Oregon man reports encounter with great white shark | statesmanjournal.com | Statesman Journal.

COOS BAY, Ore. — An Oregon man says a great white shark knocked him off his surfboard near Winchester Bay.

The World newspaper in Coos Bay reported that 29-year-old David Lowden was paddling his board near the south jetty of the Umpqua River last week when a shark he estimated at nearly 14 feet broke the surface behind him and sent him flying.

Lowden said the shark emerged halfway from the water, broke the fins from his surfboard, and then thrashed around before it disappeared.

Lowden and another man surfed to the beach while a third surfer clambered onto the jetty and ditched his board. Lowden was not injured but he filled out a report.

Oregon Institute of Marine Biology professor Alan Shanks said the encounter was typical behavior for great white sharks. ——— Information from: The World, http://www.theworldlink.com

via SHARK ATTACK: Great white knocks Oregon man off surfboard – Breaking News | Tri-City Herald : Mid-Columbia news.

Umpqua River Unprovoked Shark Attack

September 29, 2010

PRESS RELEASE

On September 27, 2010 David Lowden, was attacked by a Great White Shark, while surfing with Mark Lorincz, and Justin Martin at the South Jetty of the Umpqua River in Winchester Bay, Oregon. It was 4:00 PM and they had been on the water about 45 minutes. It was sunny with a light fog coming and going and an estimated air temperature of 65 degrees Fahrenheit. They were 80 – 100 yards from shore, in water 15 – 20 feet deep with a sandy ocean floor and 4 – 5 feet of water visibility.

Erosion along the jetty wall created a trench deeper than the surrounding ocean floor. No unusual behavior of marine mammals, fish, or birds, was observed in the area prior to the attack.

Lowden reported;

“Surf conditions were good with a large swell, light winds, and good interval. Water temperature was much higher than normal, around 56 – 58 Fahrenheit. High tide was at 2:15 PM that day and the peak we were surfing was further out than normal due to the size of the swell. After surfing for about 45 minutes, and catching only two waves, the current pushed me towards the outside and wide of the peak that was breaking about 30 feet South of the jetty. I paddled hard to fight the current and regain position in the peak. During this effort I was struck from underneath by the unmistakable force of a shark, due to past experience being bumped by a Great White in September of 2006 at the same location. I knew right away from the hardness of the object that it was a shark. The shark was at full attack speed nailing the tail of my board ejecting me forward as the shark breached the surface of the water with most of its body. I got a pretty good look at the overall presence but it happened so fast I wasn’t able to pick out details. The shark turned on its side as it headed back down, thrashing its tail a couple times before disappearing somewhere underneath or behind me. Frantic, I pulled my board back toward me by the leash. I then began to paddle as fast as I could toward the jetty which seemed much closer than the beach. Luckily, during the encounter I had been pushed inside and toward the peak enough to grab the first wave in that came moments later. After regrouping on the beach, the other two surfers were able to fill in the blanks as to what really happened as both saw the entire incident take place. We came to the conclusion it was a Great White between 11 and 14 feet in length. I believe that it either miscalculated the attack or aborted at the last second clipping the tail of my board, striking the fins first which I think must have given it a bit of a shock and caused it to thrash about after the initial contact. My board sustained minimal damage considering, losing a fin and crushing a fin box and creasing the tail. No injuries occurred.”

This is the fifth authenticated unprovoked shark attack from the Pacific Coast of North America for this year and the first for Oregon.

via Umpqua River Unprovoked Shark Attack | SURFLINE.COM.

According WVEC 13 News the species that bit a teen surfer off the Sandbridge area of Virginia Beach has still not been identified. Paramedics believe it was a species of shark that bit Caleb Kauchak on the knee and ankle. However, it seems that confirmation of the attacking species based on bite marks has yet to be made.

Dr. Chip Cotton of the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences was interviewed by 13 News and speculated that the attacking species could have been a spinner shark chasing bait fish. However, it seems that Dr. Cotton was merely being interviewed as a shark expert for the report, as he later states that “whoever is doing the investigation” will be able to distinguish species bites based on the upper and lower bite patterns.

via Species still unidentified in Virginia Beach suspected shark attack – The Dorsal Fin.