Yeah but it sort of begs the question why wasn’t she found floating on the surface after the attack as she was in a wet suit.
Since it had been a hot minute since I read some good primary literature on shark behavior, I did quick search. Many articles are behind paywalls but there have been documented instances of white sharks carrying prey underwater in order to kill it by blood loss, and then consume it. At least 2 papers discuss this. But, few things to consider here:
Keep in mind a coroner is not a marine biologist. The cause of death was sharp and blunt force trauma and submersion in water due to shark attack. Submersion does not mean the shark held her underwater. It is a fair thing to infer, but that’s not what the coroner is specifically saying. Like i said, Erica was likely incapacitated after the initial strike and whether the animal held her or not, drowning was likely inevitable. Key though to the above, is that blood loss was not mentioned, nor did the animal consume her. This is critical to me in this discussion. The shark would only expend energy to carry and kill, like papers indicate above, if it was going to consume. Sharks are very selective, preying usually on fat-rich animals like seals/sea lions. Immediately after the strike, the shark absolutely knew Erica was not something it wanted to eat, and had no plans to consume. This is a common theme with many attacks - strike and move on. So…why would the shark carry her any distance if it was not planning to consume? That is a waste of time and energy for the animal which it just is not going to do. Time and energy are precious commodities to marine animals, the shark would not waste resources to carry her around without consuming. Ecologically makes no sense.
Ocean currents/underwater eddies certainly can explain movement of the body a great distance without being found. Wetsuit certainly would have been cut, and with blood loss or other factors buoyancy could be compromised. Think of how powerful rip currents are. Along pacific coast certainly powerful movements and ocean dynamics can reasonably explain movement of her body. at least in my mind.
I apologize for the morbid discussion but I think it’s good discussion and i am passionate about sharks so i appreciate your consideration of these points.
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Makes sense. And yes, although morbid it is somewhat germane to us as triathletes. I have done OWS training in the ocean off CA and HI many times. There have often been moments where I suddenly felt uneasy about my location and due to poor visibility with sharks being top of mind. It’s a primordial instinct, not rational. I am far more likely to be killed driving to the beach to start my swim then during it.
You want to talk about not rational? When I’m stopped in traffic below an overpass, I try not to be directly below the edge of the bridge above me because I don’t want a car to flip off the bridge and land on my car. Lol
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This is me, as someone who was in the 1989 SF earthquake (underground at a BART station).
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This is a lot like all the swim deaths in triathlon, most often from a heart issue, but that then leads to drowning. If you take one inhaled breath after whatever trauma you sustained, then you have water in your lungs and it gets ruled drowning. We will never know if the shark held her under for a longish period of time, or she blacked out from the initial attack and remained face down until she expired.
New thought on the sharks behavior you found, I had not known about the new possible dynamic of acting like an Orca..And we need to keep in mind that currents can be tricky and swift, accounting for the large distance she was found from the attack. And a search is often a bust in these cases, needle in a haystack. Not like she was wearing a bright orange wetsuit, easily missed while traveling at high current speeds. Suppose some consolation to the family to have her body back, still my worst horror movie that runs through my thoughts about dying…
Agree. I think my favorite statistic I saw on this matter once was that vending machines kill more people in the US every year than sharks. talk about weird things more likely to happen.
I am honestly pretty nervous to swim in the ocean anywhere. BUT, sharks are relatively low on my list of worries - jellyfish #1, but after that i’m more nervous about a bluefish or something taking a nip of my toes. I’ve had small fish do that even in freshwater ponds and it unnerves me something wicked.
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Luxury! My irrational swim fear was my last solo open water swim (about 2 miles) in Florida. I was a bit nervous of gators, so I strapped a dive knife to my leg. I had no delusions that I’d get in or win a knife fight with a gator, but I was completely amazed how much calmer I was during the swim and no longer the least bit worried. Some part of me took comfort in the idea that if something did take a bite of me, I wouldn’t swatting and shouting ineffectively at it, but at least could go down with a fight (and likely wouldn’t have been able to anyway). Pretty irrational, but it made for a stress free swim (other than the fact that I got lost coming back to my starting point…).
I can understand that. My fear of getting taken down by a big cat is not as bad as a shark because I feel like I could at least pick up a rock or limb and try to fight it off. Most likely end up the same as this poor ultra marathoner.
For being so rare it sure seems to happen a lot. And they use to host a 70.3 there
Deaths are extremely rare (see figures below). Statistically, something can be rare AND happen frequently. For example, we regularly hear about people winning huge PowerBall jackpots…but that doesn’t mean that the odds of winning are high.
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I can relate! Every time I go to Decathlon to buy swimming stuff, I ponder the Cressi knives for a few minutes. Although here in the Mediterranean fatal shark attacks are unheard of… if I’m going to die, I’ll die fighting…
Every instance is a media frenzy that makes front page news so it creates a false sense of frequency. Think of all the things that kill 2 people a year in the entire country (usa), per that graphic. That is INSANELY rare.
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Case in point..Joe Rogan mentions this very attack.
I listened to this show last week, Joe has a lot of crazy theories about a lot of stuff, the notion that sharks attack humans as retribution for being in their hunting area’s is a new one.
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That’s a fascinating idea though. Predators are territorial. Mating season and hunting ground are pretty instinctive and invoke aggressive esponses on some species. Sharks do have a dominance heirarchy response.
Quite the opposite. It almost never happens would be the correct description. You know over 450 people die falling out of bed every year in the US, and just about any activity you can imagine has way more deaths than sharks. But that topic should be a new thread, this one should stick to this poor woman’s untimely and abhorrent death…
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What do you make of the things that you can do in the moment to increase your chance of getting on land and reducing blood loss in a situation like this from a lifeguard perspective?
Depending on where the injury, you may be able to get to shore but if it’s a major artery, you have a few minutes.
The graphic makes you wonder how many provoked shark attacks there are and why?