SOLANA BEACH Several North County beaches were closed Friday morning after a man was killed in a shark attack north of Fletcher Cove, officials said.
The swimmer, 66-year-old David Martin of Solana Beach, was attacked as he was swimming about 150 yards offshore shortly after 7 a.m., officials said.
Beaches from Torrey Pines State Beach to south Carlsbad will be closed to swimming and surfing for 72 hours, with the advisory to be lifted Monday.
Richard H. Rosenblatt, a professor emeritus of marine biology at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, said he believed the shark involved in the attack was a great white shark, between 12- and 17-feet-long. He said he made his determination based on the wounds on the victim and the description of the attack from witnesses.
I was told the victim was pushed up and out of the water in a violent attack. That is just typical of the white shark feeding behavior, Rosenblatt said. They normally feed on seals and attack from below and make a very powerful bite, then pull away and wait for the seal or other marine mammal to bleed to death.
Rosenblatt said white shark attacks are very rare. He said there isn't a resident population of white sharks in the area, but female sharks come to the area from the north to give birth. They also swim great distances and have been known to be tagged in Monterey and then turn up in Hawaii.
The chances of finding this particular shark are very slim, Rosenblatt said.
A shark typically hunts its prey from close to the bottom and then comes up from below to attack its prey.
We think it is mistaken identify, Rosenblatt said of the morning attack on Miller. A human swimmer is not too unlike a seal.
A helicopter initially was sent to take Martin to a hospital, but he was pronounced dead at a lifeguard station.
Witnesses told lifeguards that a big gray shark attacked the man, biting both his lower legs, said Solana Beach Marine Safety Capt. Craig Miller.
The man was swimming with a group of about 10 others, heading north from Fletcher Cove, near Tide Park, when the attack occurred. The group regularly swims in the area. All the swimmers were wearing wet suits.
Miller said two of the swimmers were about 20 yards ahead of the victim when he was attacked. They heard the victim screaming, went to his aid and brought him to shore, he said.
Encinitas Lifeguard Lt. Paul Chapman, who went to Fletcher Cove after the attack, said the victim's legs had suffered deep jagged lacerations, from the upper thighs to the lower shin, with a bite radius of about 22 inches.
Wherever that thing is right now, Chapman said, it's pretty good-sized.
The swimmers who were with the victim were taken to a community center to be debriefed, officials said. They declined to speak to reporters.
Officials closed beaches in Solana Beach, Del Mar and Encinitas after the attack.
Lifeguards in two vehicles were patrolling Solana Beach's 1.7 miles of coastline and a sheriff's helicopter flew overhead Friday morning, telling people to stay out of the water.
Miller said that if swimmers ignore the ban, he said, sheriff's deputies would be called to enforce the order.
Beach closure signs also were posted.
This is a tragic situation for Solana Beach and the surrounding areas and the county of San Diego, said Solana Beach Mayor Joe Kellejian.
Kellejian urged the public to listen to safety officers and to stay out of the water.
It just doesn't happen. A shark attack is unheard of, said Solana Beach Deputy Fire Chief Dismas Abelman.
In Encinitas, the city just north of Solana Beach, extra lifeguards were called in and they cleared the water as a precaution, warning surfers face-to-face not to go out.
We're keeping the water clear and informing people that they shouldn't be in the water, Chapman said. A couple people have chosen to go in the water and surf at Swami's and one at Beacons, against our advice.
Later in the day, more surfers disregarded warnings and were seen in the water.
Chapman said that seals and sea lions have been beaching themselves in the area he said a crew from Sea World was on its way to rescue one as he spoke. Such beachings are a possible sign of a large predator in the coastal waters.
Those are signs that say this isn't the place to go, Chapman said. We have one person fatally wounded and we have sea life exiting the water. It's better to stay out of the water and give it time.
He also said a juvenile great white shark washed up on a nearby beach two weeks before.
A Coast Guard helicopter was sent to the area. The crew helped clear the area and spotters were trying to spot the culprit, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Clinton Dotson.
So far, no San Diego beaches have been closed, San Diego lifeguard Lt. Nick Lerma said. It happened a significant distance from us, so we're sort of status quo, Lerma said.
The state lifeguards who patrol Carlsbad's shoreline also did not feel the need to close that city's beaches, but did post warning signs and were broadcasting advisories from loudspeakers at lifeguard posts, said Lifeguard Travis Fryant.
It's not a mandatory closure, Fryant said. We're letting the public know the facts and letting them make their own decisions about it.
Lifeguards in Oceanside were also broadcasting warnings over their stations' loudspeakers, said city Lifeguard Emile Lagendijk.
The ocean temperatures off the coast are in the upper 50s, fairly typical for this time of year, according to Jim Purpura, meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service office in Rancho Bernardo.
The last time a shark was confirmed to have bitten someone in San Diego County waters was in 1994.
The victim, 25-year-old Michelle Von Emster, went for a nighttime swim by herself in Ocean Beach April 14.
Her body, with her leg severed at midthigh, was found the following day two miles to the south, near the surfing area known as Garbage Reef.
Local investigators determined she drowned after being bitten by a great white shark, but state Fish & Game investigators said it couldn't be determined which happened first.
Homicide detectives were called in after friends of the victim raised questions of foul play.
Friends said the woman whose body was found unclothed would not swim alone or without a swim suit. They also wondered why Von Emster's purse was found on the bluffs above the beach, and why her clothing was never found.
Reports of a great white shark at the same spot raised alarms in 2003, two years after great white shark sightings caused a scare at the venerable surf spot at San Onofre State Beach. No one was harmed either time.
