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Shark kills woman swimming with seals
Atlanta Journal-Constitution ^ | 8.20.03

Posted on 08/20/2003 8:45:26 AM PDT by mhking

AVILA BEACH, Calif. -- A 50-year-old woman died when a shark attacked her as she swam with seals Tuesday morning near the pier of this tiny beach town near San Luis Obispo, authorities said.

Deborah Franzman of Nipomo was swimming as she did several times a week near some buoys about 75 yards offshore when the attack occurred about 8:20 a.m.

"The water was full of blood," said Antonio Neotti, 15, an aspiring lifeguard who watched four lifeguards swim through the surf to rescue her.

"They pulled her out on the beach," he said. "She was not conscious. It looked like she was bitten in her hip and her upper thigh."

A friend watching Franzman from onshore said that harbor seals suddenly scattered and that the swimmer was engulfed in a large breach of white water, according to state and local authorities.

A man near the beach reported seeing a large fin.

Franzman, a sociology instructor at Allen Hancock College in Santa Maria, died at the scene.

Lifeguards immediately closed the waters to swimming.

"The picture painted so far fits perfectly of what would be a white shark incident," said Robert Lea, a marine biologist who tracks shark attacks for the California Department of Fish and Game. "We'll know more after the autopsy. But if you look at the statistics, most incidents are at the surface. These animals are ambush predators. They come up from underneath."

If confirmed by the autopsy planned for Wednesday, Franzman's death would be the 10th shark-bite fatality in California waters since authorities standardized record-keeping in the early 1950s.

Not only are unprovoked shark bites unusual -- with 93 reported since the record-keeping began -- biologists believe that they often may be due to mistaken identity.

In this case, they suspect that Franzman, who was clad in a dark wetsuit and fins, resembled the seals that are abundant in the waters off Avila Beach and adjacent Port San Luis. Seals are the favorite food of mature great white sharks.

"There's a common denominator here," Lea said. "She's swimming with marine mammals. If you are a swimmer on the surface, you have a silhouette that looks like a marine mammal."

Most shark-bite victims survive if they can make it ashore quickly and stop the bleeding. In this case, coroner's officials suspect that the woman bled to death because the shark appeared to have severed the femoral artery.

"We should be able to determine the cause of death," said Capt. Gary L. Hoving of the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Department. "We'll find out if it was drowning or loss of blood."

At the request of state fish and game officials, the coroner's office will also X-ray the wounds to look for tooth fragments and scratch marks on the bone to determine if the bites came from a great white shark. Great whites are protected under state law and are known to hunt in the coastal waters off Northern and Central California.

Franzman, who was following her regular routine, arrived at the beach with a friend and two dogs, and swam along offshore buoys that mark the beach west of the pier as restricted from motorboats. Authorities estimate it to be about 15 feet deep.

Lifeguards normally do not come on duty until 10 a.m. But about 25 guards were congregated at Avila Beach for a regional competition, including swimming around the pier. Some guards were in the water at the time of the attack.

Antonio was on the pier, watching the competition, and noticed that the "seals seemed to be acting all funny. They were bunched up together, and they would come up and look around."

Then Franzman's friend starting shouting for help from shore, and lifeguards were soon sprinting down the beach to come to Franzman's aid. Four of them plunged into the water and swam out to help her.

"They were just acting on training and instinct, without thinking about any potential danger 1/8for themselves 3/8," said Russ Edwards, senior lifeguard for the Port San Luis Harbor District. "There is no guideline in the U.S. Lifeguard Assn. manual which specifies we have to go into the water and make a rescue in a situation like this."

Greg Weisberg, head of the harbor district's marine safety division, said the lifeguards "tried to administer first aid to the best of their ability."

Avila Beach, which is 200 miles north of Los Angeles, is about 10 miles from the closest ambulance.

Paramedics from the California Division of Forestry were the first to arrive.

Authorities had to improvise.

San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Deputy Matt Danielson said the ambulance couldn't cross the broad beach, so a lifeguard truck ferried Franzman to the street.

Lifeguards patrolled the beaches along the coast throughout the day and night to warn people to stay out of the surf.

A Coast Guard ship came into the sheltered bay and warned boaters of the danger.

The incident rattled authorities in this beach town, which is best known for the nearby Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant and the enormous underground oil spill that forced Unocal to raze most of downtown in its extensive cleanup efforts.

"Usually, we see very petty stuff, like drinking on the beach, parking violations and kids getting out of hand," Danielson said. "We've never seen anything like this."

Sheriff's Lt. Martin Basti spent the day fielding questions from a swarm of television journalists drawn by the freak incident.

"The odds of this happening are just so incredible, it's hard to know what to do," Basti said.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events; US: California
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1 posted on 08/20/2003 8:45:26 AM PDT by mhking
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To: Howlin; Ed_NYC; MonroeDNA; widgysoft; Springman; Timesink; dubyaismypresident; Grani; coug97; ...
Mmmmmm.... Lunch!

Just damn.

If you want on the new list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...

2 posted on 08/20/2003 8:46:26 AM PDT by mhking
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To: mhking
She shoulda danced with wolves, instead.
3 posted on 08/20/2003 8:47:08 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (France delenda est)
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To: mhking
Sorry to bust your balls, but this has been posted already. Do a search on "shark".
4 posted on 08/20/2003 8:47:36 AM PDT by CollegeRepublican
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To: mhking
If you don't want to get eaten, don't swim in the chum line.
5 posted on 08/20/2003 8:48:26 AM PDT by facedown (Armed in the Heartland)
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To: mhking
"Franzman, a sociology instructor at Allen Hancock College in Santa Maria, died at the scene."

Talk about poetic justice.

6 posted on 08/20/2003 8:48:27 AM PDT by bigfootbob
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To: mhking
"A 50-year-old woman died when a shark attacked her as she swam with seals "

and at NO point noone thought this might not be the smartest idea in the world? Great White swimming around and thinking " thats the biggest seal I have ever seen.. LUNCH!"
7 posted on 08/20/2003 8:48:51 AM PDT by Pikamax
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To: mhking
She was probably the biggest, and slowest, "seal" in the water..and thus the obvious target....FYI..studies of great white attacks off S. Africa, have shown that when the shark first bites into a human, they somehow sense that it isn't prey, and literally spit the humans out..
8 posted on 08/20/2003 8:49:17 AM PDT by ken5050
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To: mhking
While this is certainly tragic,it is also ridiculous!Anyone with half a brain is aware that seals and other marine-mammals are a favorite food of sharks!!This particular shark was shopping for a meal and mistook the woman for a seal!!!
9 posted on 08/20/2003 8:51:09 AM PDT by bandleader
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To: mhking
Great whites are protected under state law and are known to hunt in the coastal waters off Northern and Central California.

WHY? Unless of course the seal population is too large. But then again if that were the case they would allow them to be hunted by man and their skin could be used for clothing.

10 posted on 08/20/2003 8:51:19 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: ken5050
"...first bites into a human, they somehow sense that it isn't prey, and literally spit the humans out.."

Shows the sharks have taste. Would you eat a fat, oily, mean faced clipped haired liberal by choice? I bet they don't taste like chicken! :o

11 posted on 08/20/2003 8:53:56 AM PDT by bigfootbob
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To: mhking
No Darwin Award. At fifty she was in no position to add anymore to the gene pool anyway.
12 posted on 08/20/2003 8:55:01 AM PDT by Paleo Conservative (Do not remove this tag under penalty of law.)
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To: bigfootbob
juast because she's a sociology prof..you assume she's a lib........(g)
13 posted on 08/20/2003 8:55:12 AM PDT by ken5050
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To: mhking
"Great whites are protected under state law and are known to hunt in the coastal waters off Northern and Central California."

It's one of the interesting if incomprehensible characteristics of liberals to pass laws protecting their own predators.

14 posted on 08/20/2003 8:55:17 AM PDT by nightdriver
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To: mhking
The odds that an "educated" woman would swim with Seals and NOT expect to be eaten by a shark are fantastic!!

Darwin Award Winner.

15 posted on 08/20/2003 8:56:06 AM PDT by Ann Archy
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To: Pikamax
Almost anywhere in California there is the potential to be swimming with seals. It is not really your choice, it is the seals.

Also, any time you are in salt water and sometimes in freshwater you can be attacked by a shark and sometimes die. It happens alot more than townships and the media let on. Surfers will be bumped or rushed by sharks and not tell anyone about it, so as not to give away their secret spot.

Here in Maryland on the coast there is a theory going around us surfers that the town of Ocean City cover-ups any nibble or bite. If the story does get out it is always an agressive bluefish bite, never a shark.
16 posted on 08/20/2003 8:56:58 AM PDT by CollegeRepublican
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To: mhking
That's just right down the road from where I live now...in Los Osos, I didn't know that the sharks were hungry in these parts.... I wonder if I can get some liberals I know to hit the beach with me?!
17 posted on 08/20/2003 8:57:01 AM PDT by Porterville (I hate anything and anyone that would attack the things that I love...)
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To: mhking
Were the seals okay?
18 posted on 08/20/2003 8:57:32 AM PDT by jjbrouwer (You haven't lived till you've been kicked repeatedly in the nuts by a crazed dominatrix)
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To: CollegeRepublican
Well I am glad that he posted the article. When I got up this morning I forgot to do a search on anyone who might have posted any articles on "sharks".
19 posted on 08/20/2003 8:58:26 AM PDT by AxelPaulsenJr (Ozzy Osborne says that pot leads to harder drugs.)
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To: ken5050
Not quite. Yes, being a sociology prof. is a 1st strike. Swimming with any wild animal is LIBERAL folly, strike 2. And, probably the most damaging fact is she's from San Luis Obispo, She's out!
20 posted on 08/20/2003 9:00:55 AM PDT by bigfootbob
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