California hit a terrifying milestone final yr — the best recorded annual variety of shark-related “incidents” alongside its iconic shoreline.
There have been 10 assaults, encounters or different interactions involving sharks reported by the California Division of Fish and Wildlife in 2025, in line with new information.
The unsettling determine beat the state’s earlier excessive established practically a decade in the past: 9 in 2017.
One in every of final yr’s encounters was tragically lethal.
Erica Fox, a 55-year-old triathlete, disappeared off the coast of Monterey whereas swimming along with her husband final month — with witnesses saying they later noticed a shark with a human physique in its mouth.
Her stays had been discovered days later, along with her “shark band” — designed to keep at bay the beasts with electromagnetic power — nonetheless on her ankle.
This yr obtained off to a grotesque begin, too.
Surfer Tommy Civik, 26, was chomped on by a shark about 150 toes from shore, close to the seashore resort of Gualala on California’s northern coast, Tuesday, though he lived to inform about it.
In more moderen years, the California information present there have been eight assaults or incidents in 2024, three in 2023 and eight in 2022.
Nonetheless, precise accidents ensuing from such encounters are uncommon.
There have been three individuals injured final yr, together with Fox’s fatality. The best variety of shark accidents within the state was seven in 1974.
