On Sunday, authorities close down two miles of Orange County beaches, including Huntington Beach, after spotting large sharks near the coasts.
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Maria Korcsmaros is recovering from her injuries at Orange County Global Medical Center.
The photo taken Thursday and provided by Orange County Global Medical Center on Monday shows Maria Korcsmaros, 52, grinning in her hospital bed, wearing a gown with a cast covering almost the entire length of her right arm.
State park rangers who monitor Bolsa Chica state beach have also been advised of the shark sightings, Panis said.
At around 2 p.m., the Orange County Sheriff’s Department contacted the Huntington Beach Fire Department to report its helicopter crew saw “multiple sharks” that were more than 8 feet long off Anderson Street near Sunset Beach Tower 26, said Claude Panis, a marine safety lieutenant for the fire department. Florida has six times as many shark attacks as California does, experts say. On Monday, authorities will determine if the beaches can be safely reopened to the public.
A two-mile stretch of beach remains closed after several large sharks were spotted over the weekend.
No sharks encounters, bites, or attacks have been reported by scuba divers in Southern California this year, but on May 30, an Orange County woman swimming in a wetsuit about 150 yards off the shore of Corona del Mar State Beach was bitten by a shark, which injured from her shoulder to her torso.
“Whenever there’s a sighting of an 8-foot long shark, we do our due diligence and close the waters down”, Panis said.
A lifeguard dispatcher told CBS Los Angeles beach closures following a shark sighting typically last between 12 to 24 hours.
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Korcsmaros is now taking antibiotics to help keep any infection at bay as she recovers at the hospital.
