A shark attacked a woman Friday in the waters of Del Mar, north of San Diego, Del Mar lifeguards said.
The woman was treated at a hospital for puncture and laceration wounds to her upper right thigh, according to Jon Edelbrock, lifeguard chief for the city of Del Mar. She received stitches and is recovering.
The shark may have been a juvenile white shark, Edelbrock said, but officials are waiting for scientists to confirm that. Juvenile white sharks often swim in the waters off Del Mar’s shoreline.
A lifeguard spotted the woman and her friend, two long-distance swimmers, just after 10 a.m. as they were heading back to shore following a mile-plus (kilometer-plus) swim, Edelbrock said. Their strokes changed and the friend was waving his arms for help in the water a few hundred yards (meters) from the beach, but outside the surf zone.
The woman did spot the shark before the attack. Lifeguards, who did not spot the shark, helped the pair back to shore, he said.
“She had a diligent swim buddy," Edelbrock said. “They both maintained their composure quite well.”
The beach is now closed for at least 48 hours under the city's shark bite protocol.
This was the first ever incident of a shark bite in the area, lifeguards told NBC 7.
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The City of Del Mar works very closely with the Shark Lab at California State University, Long Beach.
“They’ve noted there is a more significant larger juvenile white shark population here. It's been here for two, two-and-a half years and is just non-migratory. They just set up a nursery in this North County area. There's a few other areas in Southern California, but we've certainly had a number of reports over the last couple years,” Edelbrock said.
Local surfer, Andrew Brackenbury, was up at the Del Mar Plaza getting a coffee when he heard folks talking about the shark attack. As a frequent surfer in the area, his ears perked up. Despite the recent increase in juvenile white sharks in the area, Brackenbury was not fazed.
"I know that we aren't necessarily their targets, and we're pretty still for the most part. I mean, we're splashing, you know, we're paddling but we're also kind of up above the water so our whole bodies are not submerged," Brackenbury said.
An 8-foot-long (2.44-meter-long) juvenile female great white shark washed up dead near Tower 2 Sunday on the shores of Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve and State Beach, according to Jorge Moreno, Public Information Officer with the California State Parks.
That shark was found nearly 3 miles (4.83 kilometers) south of Friday's attack.
The female great white shark found Sunday died from injuries due to people fishing. She had a Geo tracker on her that was installed by Cal State Long Beach's Shark Lab, PIO Moreno said.
Great white sharks are protected and must be safely released if they are accidentally caught, Moreno added.
