Shark attack on surfer 'straight out of Jaws'
A young surfer who fought off a shark is recovering in hospital today, after undergoing more surgery to a badly-gashed leg.
Megan Halavais, 20, was said to be in a fair condition at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, California, after surgery on the shark bite, which left teeth marks that spanned 19 inches from her thigh to her calf.
The Santa Rosa Junior College student is expected to be released early next week.
Halavais, an experienced surfer, was paddling into the water off Salmon Creek Beach, about a mile north of Bodega Bay in Sonoma County, on Wednesday, when a shark grabbed her from behind, pulled her under the water and mauled her.
The water was eerily glassy and calm just before the shark attacked, Halavais said.
“It was weird. I was sitting out there thinking, ‘Wow, this feels sharky to me’,” she said. “It was straight out of Jaws.”
Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Lt Roger Rude said the bite’s measurements indicated that the shark was probably about 17 to 20ft long.
Halavais said she got away after she hit the shark on its tail.
“I couldn’t fit my arms around its tail. Its fin, its main dorsal fin, was like taller than me,” she said.
“I felt a bump hit, I think that’s when he bit me. I think I grabbed around - I was like trying to throw my body on top by his dorsal fin and then grab the tail,” she added. “I was trying to push. I was just pushing it away.”
Halavais was helped from the water by other surfers.
Authorities closed a six-mile stretch of Salmon Creek Beach until Monday.
Salmon Creek Beach has been the site of several shark attacks in recent years, Rude said. Police believe the shark was probably a great white.
