The fatal shark attack off the waters of San Diego was "a very freak thing, very unusual," a prominent shark expert said Friday.
UC Davis shark researcher Pete Klimley said attacks tend to occur at other times of the year, usually in the fall, and seldom in Southern California.
"You very rarely get a shark attack in Southern California. It's about the safest place to be in terms of sharks," said Klimley, a Petaluma resident and author.
Klimley said the shark that attacked the 66-year-old swimmer was undoubtedly a great white, based on the fatal injuries.
"It was probably a large female that was migrating southward with females that give birth to their young," he said.
Although those great whites tend to head to islands, sharks also swim in underwater canyons that come relatively close to shore.
Klimley said researchers know some of the giant predator's habits because of transmitters they've placed on them to track their movements.
Based on eyewitness accounts Friday, the victim was about 150 yards from shore, swimming with other triathletes, when he was thrust vertically out of the water by the shark.
"It was a terrible thing -- bad luck. The guy was with a group of people, trying to be safe," Klimley said.
There was speculation Friday that the black wet suit the swimmer wore may have made him look even more like a seal, the normal fare for sharks.
Klimley agreed that the great white may have mistaken the victim for its common prey. But he said the wet suit probably was not a factor, because sharks have poor eyesight.
"Probably attacked more than anything now are kayakers, and they are very bright-colored," he said. "It's not a color issue. Most of the time, it's an object at the surface, near a seal colony."
Klimley noted that over the past 10 years worldwide, there have been an average of 56 shark attacks per year, and about 10 percent were fatal.
On the North Coast, many of the shark attacks have involved surfers and abalone divers. They tend to occur near rocky areas, especially where seals are present. The attacks occur most frequently in the so-called Red Triangle, formed by Tomales Bay, the Farallon Islands and Año Nuevo Island near Monterey Bay.
No shark-related deaths have been reported off the Marin and Sonoma coasts since the state Department of Fish and Game began keeping records in 1961. An Auburn man diving for abalone in Mendocino County was killed by a great white shark in August 2004.
A Guerneville man in 2006 received only bite marks after being dragged underwater by a 15-foot-long great white shark while paddling on his surfboard off Dillon Beach in Marin County.
It was his third shark incident. He was bumped by one near the Russian River just a few years before and once helped a fellow surfer who had been attacked.
In 2005, a 20-year-old Santa Rosa woman who was bitten by a great white shark while surfing off the Sonoma County coast came within a centimeter of losing her leg or bleeding to death, her surgeon said.
And in 2002, Santa Rosa attorney Mike Casey was bitten while body boarding.
You can reach Staff Writer Clark Mason at 521-5214 or
clark.mason@pressdemocrat.com
