California shark attack injures swimmer and triggers beach closures

A swimmer was seriously injured in a shark attack on the southern California coast on Sunday, prompting temporary beach closures, authorities said.

The attack happened on Sunday morning at Del Mar City beach in Del Mar, about 20 miles (32km) north of San Diego, local officials said.

Shark attacks earn a disproportionate number of news headlines when they occur but are relatively rare. Globally, there were almost 70 unprovoked shark bites in 2023, according to the International Shark Attack File curated by the Florida Museum, which is in the US state that is the world leader in such attacks.

In Sunday’s case, the 46-year-old man who was bitten – an ocean swimmer who regularly trains at the beach – suffered significant but not life-threatening injuries. He was taken to a hospital for treatment, city officials said.

The attack happened about 100 yards from a beach lifeguard station. The swimmer was bitten in the torso, left arm and hand.

Authorities said the beach will remain closed for surfers and swimmers until Tuesday morning.

The man was attacked when he was swimming with roughly a dozen other people, said the chief lifeguard and community services director, Jonathan Edelbrock. Lifeguards were setting up on the beach for the day when they were alerted of the situation.

No one had seen the shark when the attack happened, Edelbrock said. The city also deployed a drone and a boat to look for the shark afterwards with no success.

“The water visibility was really poor,” he said. “You just can’t see anything that’s moving through the water column at all. The exact moment of the incident was really the only interaction with, or sighting of, the shark.”

Another swimmer was attacked by a shark in November 2022 on the coast of Del Mar, where she was bitten in the upper thigh. A popular beach in San Clemente, 41 miles north of Del Mar, also closed for the Memorial Day holiday last week after a shark bumped a surfer off his board.