A man has suffered from an injured left thigh after he was bitten by a shark while surfing off Salmon Creek Beach early Sunday morning.
Authorities said the victim is in serious condition but is reported to be able to survive.
A group of people who were with him in the water and other bystanders helped bring the victim, who is believed to be in his 30s, to the beach parking space.
At about 9 a.m., emergency officials arrived at the scene. They used a tourniquet to stop the injury from bleeding before airlifting the man to a hospital nearby.
“CHP H-32 is enroute to Santa Rosa Memorial [Hospital] with a trauma patient who was reported to have been bitten by a shark,” part of the California Highway Patrol Golden Gate Divisions Air Operations’ Facebook post read. “Bodega Bay Fire Protection District, Sonoma Sheriff, and California State Parks are currently at the scene and the patient is reported to be critically injured. More details to follow.”
In California, shark attacks rarely happen. Since the 1950s, the state has recorded fewer than 200 incidents that involved all shark species.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife said fifteen of these incidents, which only involved white sharks, were fatal. The type of shark behind Sunday’s attack was not yet identified.
“I was out with five guys — we heard a couple people yell shark about 50 feet away,” shared a surfer who was only identified by his first name, Cody, to KPIX. “It was by the mouth of the river. The sharks come there to get salmon…Next thing I heard the dude screaming. I knew he got bit.”
KPIX also reported that the shark’s teeth have left deep hollows on the man’s surfboard.
