The heart attack theory seems quite unlikely. In a wetsuit, she would have been floating at the surface and easily spotted by her swim club. Also, when recovering the body, the evidence of an attack from a large shark would be quite obvious. It is possible to suffer cardiac arrest in the aftermath of a shark attack, but the damage from the bites is the cause (white sharks typically bite and then move away from their prey to avoid being injured, then consuming the prey after it has bled out).
To echo @TJ56, hopefully the recovery of the body and a proper funeral will provide some solace to those who knew her in the wake of this tragedy.
What article is this? Everything I’ve read is that there were more than just one witness of a shark sighting. And her father is the person who identified her.
Agree with @Titanflexr about drowning not being the cause.
It popped up in my Instagram while I was scrolling earlier today. It might have said Father. I have no idea how I could find it again since it was just a random article. Probably A.I. generated based off my phone data.
“Two witnesses reported that the “swimmer may have encountered a shark while swimming offshore near Lovers Point,” officials said.”
Previous reports said the two witnesses described the body in the mouth, that’s where that all came from. Circling back to what I said before, and considering article said the body found still had wetsuit on, I’m thinking the idea of the shark swimming around with the body in the mouth is probably not fully accurate or was highly misleading at best, and is a good example of sensationalist verbiage in these scenarios. Previous reports insinuated multiple people saw the shark swimming with the victims body in its mouth, which feels highly unlikely and/or taken out of context at this point.
Unless the witnesses were fisherman. I don’t know who else could have seen the shark? And I’ve seen videos from fisherman that show great whites swimmimg just under the surface with dead seals in their mouths. I think we all just want more information then we are ever going to get unless Discovery covers the attack in the next Shark Week series.
Well shark week is a disgrace in my opinion, used to be great but now it’s way too jaws-ian for my scientific taste. At least last time I cared which was years ago, maybe it’s changed but I wouldn’t get your hopes up on that one.
I do feel sorry for the family. When you swim in the home of a sharks or you run in the woods or mountains where large cats or bears live you’re taking a chance to become a statistic. You’re in their home not the reverse.
I met Erica back around 2010 at a prerace swim clinic for the Triathlon at Pacific Grove. This clinic was to help people be more comfortable with the swim, and was held every year that TriCal had the PG race. Erica was always a great ambassador for the sport, and was kind a supportive of many scared and unsure athletes, many doing their first triathlon. A lot off ‘stuff’ has been written in comments her death (on other sites) The reality is that her rdeath is a tragedy, and my heart goes out to the family and her friends.
I am particularly struck by how Erica clearly knew and respected the ocean, it clearly meant the world to her to experience it and be one with it. this was not an unfortunate beachgoer who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. by wearing the deterrent bracelet, she obviously knew what was out there, and therefore had a deep and profound relationship with the ocean - she knew well what was out there, but embraced it every week for decades because of her connection with nature and what it gave her in return. this really is a beautiful thing when you sit and think about it, rare in this world. truly inspiring.
Yes she knew the risks and like virtually all of us who swim in the ocean still, accept them. Just like getting in your car to drive somewhere, much bigger odds there of coming to an end, but we push that to a place that lets us do the normal things we do every day. I have a unique understanding of course, many here have heard my story of being the first triathlete ever to be attacked during a race. Back in Daytona in 1984 I had an encounter with a hammerhead, but I was able to fight it off and get to shore. I was back in the ocean the next week, but with a very careful eye for quite sometime..
She was the one in a 100 million when you add up all the trips we all do back and forth and this possibility exists. It is super sad for her family and friends, and of course those of us in the community also feel just a twinge of many different emotions..
So I have not seen one thing about the state of her recovered body to date, suppose it is still possible that all those eye witnesses were seeing something else. It should be painfully obvious if there was a shark involved..
Thankfully no, hammerheads will ram you(which it did several times) until you become unconscious, and then move in for the final kill. We are not usual prey for them, and after the race it was deduced that the shark was protecting territory and not actually going for a meal. After I was hit a few times, it went back and hit a couple other swimmers in the lead group, where I slowed down to get into to give the shark a choice in targets..
It said to itself, if I don’t take this mfer down, this will be one of the biggest smack talkers going around.
Done by shark is truly a freak thing to happen these days. It’s such a shocking and sad thing.
If anyone who knows the lady who passed I don’t mean my joke comment above to be a derogatory comment on what happened, it’s more just an appreciation and respect for monty
They confirmed she died from a shark attack. What’s curious is her injuries are described as “sharp and blunt force injuries and submersion in water due to a shark attack” so it seems to imply she drowned as well. So perhaps the shark did hold her in it’s mouth and swim a distance before releasing her. That might account for why despite being in a wet suit and very buoyant searchers didn’t initially find her in the area and she was later discovered so far away. Strange behavior from a shark as mentioned in this thread if true. I wonder if she was wearing a device like a Garmin is the data could track where she was during the time missing.
I read that and think the drowning was purely collision induced. Getting hit by a large shark swimming and striking at attack speed would be like getting hit by a car. And from there, unconscious or otherwise incapacitated, drowning quickly follows. Sharks don’t hold prey underwater to drown it like crocodiles or orcas commonly do, as far as I know. And I don’t believe they carry it around like orcas are observed doing, at least not for extended periods. They’re all business: attack, eat, move on. Since it seems clear the shark did not consume much if at all, I think it was strike, perhaps a very short moment where shark confirmed it was not what it thought it was, then move on. 100% time underwater COULD be part of it, but I’m thinking the collision and moment of impact is the primary moment of importance here.
If her Garmin data got posted on Strava it´d be the eeriest thing ever.
When a gentleman got torpedoed and killed by a car here in Barcelona, his Strava updated the ride which then ended just there, where the accident happened. Super morbid to see that Strava ride online
