Shark Attack Kills Triathlete In San Diego

Just two weeks after I helped one of my buddies buy and load two tandem kayaks onto his SUV… Newsblog | Helicopter sent to look for shark

A Coast Guard helicopter is being sent to assist Solana Beach officials after a fatal shark attack was reported there this morning. A man was killed in the apparent attack, officials said.

The HH-60 helicopter crew has been dispatched and is going up in support of lifeguards and other emergency crews.

“It is not an active search-and-rescue,” said Coast Guard Petty Officer Clinton Dotson. “We will help clear the area … and see if we can spot the culprit.”

Solana Beach is just a few miles up the coast from where I go snorkeling in La Jolla. I’m bummed because we’re the mainland capital of training triathletes. I just texted my buddy who is a Search and Rescue swimmer with the Navy and he says he’ll tell me later this afternoon what happened. 

Why it happened?

My opinion as a native Californian, a San Diegan since 1989, and a former Navy DWEST student is…

…that we’ve let our pinniped population get out of control. Wetsuited swimmers (i.e. triathletes in this 58 degree water) resemble seals.

One example is that we let the Children’s Pool in La Jolla become a sea lion and seal refuge where there is plenty of natural habitat still available just past the break.

Add to this the early morning swim, and the cold water which Great Whites love this time of year, and you’re looking at increasing the odds. By the way, I don’t, as a habit, use my wetsuit as a toilet which some people do, particularly in endurance event training.

In 1995 there was a kayaker attacked in La Jolla right where I’ve swam for years. It’s just the risk you take when you go into the water, but it’s marginal if you take precautions.

Foxnews.com had this to report:

SOLANA BEACH, Calif. —  A male triathlete swimmer was killed Friday morning in a gruesome shark attack at a San Diego County beach.

San Diego County sheriff’s Lt. Mike McClain said deputies went to Solana Beach shortly before 7:30 a.m. Friday and found a shark bite victim, who was pronounced dead about an hour later.

The male victim — one of a group of triathlete swimmers training in the ocean — was pulled into shore, but efforts by medics to revive him failed, Deputy Fire Chief Dismas Abelman told FOX News.

Witnesses reported seeing the victim’s leg severed at the knee.

“He had very severe injuries to both legs,” Abelman told FOX.

The man, whose identity wasn’t immediately released, was described as being between 55 and 60 years old on the Solana Beach city Web site.

The incident happened at a strip called Tide Beach. Rescuers took the victim to the nearby Fletcher Cove Park lifeguard station for emergency treatment, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

The Coast Guard has issued warnings of sharks in the area since the tragic attack. Swimmers have been ordered out of the water for a 17-mile stretch around the site.

The county Sheriff’s Department has sent up helicopters to scan the waters for the shark.

From San Diego’s NBC News affiliate:

A group of nine swimmers entered the water near Fletcher Cove at about 6:30 a.m. for their daily ocean swim, according to witnesses. They swam northward, and While they were swimming, a 66-year-old man was bitten on both thighs, the spokesman for the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department said. Other swimmers looked back and saw the man flailing before he was pulled under the water, the spokesman said.

Witnesses said the victim resurfaced screaming. Several other swimmers pulled the man to shore.

Lifeguards arrived and a helicopter ambulance was called, but the victim bled to death on the beach.

Helicopter video showed lifeguards, firefighters and police gathered at the main lifeguard station in Solana Beach. What appeared to be the victim’s body covered by a yellow tarp was visible under a portable shade structure behind the headquarters.

The victim’s identity was not immediately known.

Lifeguards did not know what kind of shark attacked the man, but they speculated that it was a great white.