A woman was attacked by a shark off San Onofre State Beach Saturday afternoon, the second attack in one year off local waters.
Four women were in the water at a surf spot called “Church,” north of the San Onofre surf beach and in front of Camp Pendleton campgrounds, said state park aide Travis Lara. Two women were on surfboards, and the two other females were swimming nearby in the surf line up.
Update: Rescuers recount shark attack at San Onofre State Beach, use surf leash to save victim’s life
The beach, popular with Orange County surfers, is in northern San Diego County.
One of the women, who was wearing swim fins and wading in the water, was bit on her “glute and down her thigh,” Lara said.
Two surfers pulled her out of the water and a person on the beach used a surf leash on her upper thigh to stop the bleeding.
The incident happened late afternoon. Lara didn’t know if the women’s injuries were life threatening or where she was being treated. It was also unclear what kind of shark attacked the woman and what size it was.
He said the beach was likely going to be closed for at least 72 hours.
“We’ve had a few sightings lately,” he said. “This is a first for us.”
Beachgoer Amber Booth, of San Clemente, was headed to San Onofre to watch the sunset at about 6 p.m. with her family when the ranger told her the ocean was closed because of the shark attack an hour earlier.
The ranger told her the person was, as far as officials knew, still alive.
Booth, who surfs San Onofre often, said the news made her worry about her daughter, Angelina, 8, who boogie boards often in the area.
“There’s so many kids in the water at San O,” she said. “You don’t really want to think about it when you’re out in the water.”
There have been two videos that have surfaced lately of sharks breaching out of the water near surfers, one at Lower Trestles and another at Upper Trestles, both just north of the attack site.
A video surfaced last week of an estimated 16-foot great white feasting on a dead whale off the Dana Point coastline.
The latest attack comes nearly one year after swimmer Maria Korcsmaros was attacked off Corona del Mar last Memorial Day. Based on her bite marks, which spanned across her chest, down her hip and over her shoulder, experts estimate the shark was at least 10-feet in length.
