No further details about the woman’s injuries or her condition will be released until a news conference with trauma surgeons and the victim’s family set for Tuesday at 10 a.m., Corless said.
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The 13-year-old boy was swimming at Neptune Beach, in waters that were about three feet deep when he was attacked and bitten on his right calf by a shark.
A sighting of an eight-foot shark in October 2015 shut down a stretch of the beach north of Corona del Mar State Beach.
“We are treating this as a shark-bite incident and are asking everyone to please stay out of the water in the closure area”, he said.
“We should have more bites this year than last”, George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida, said in an interview shortly before the Memorial Day holiday weekend that signals the unofficial start of America’s summer vacation – and beach – season.
Shark attacks in America have hit an all-time high past year, as these water giants bit more than 98 people. While people were welcome on the beachfront and pier, lifeguards asked anybody entering the water to return to shore.
“The animal was big and gray, we assumed it was a shark”, said beachgoes Elizabeth Warrick, who believes she saw a shark or other large gray fish. The area beyond the buoys are often used by triathletes in training. A white shark – also known as a great white – would be the most likely candidate lurking in Southern California waters, he added.
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Lifeguards later searched the water for signs of sharks but “have not spotted a shark or any significant marine life activity”, Finnigan said this morning. Helicopters circled the beach overhead looking for the shark but were unable to locate it. There had not been any recent reports of sharks in the area.
