California swimmer believed to be sufferer of shark is discovered lifeless

For days, divers scanned the waters off Lovers Point hoping to discover a hint of Erica Fox, the lacking open-water swimmer believed to have been killed by a shark on Dec. 21.

The intensive search involving a number of businesses got here to an finish final weekend when rescue groups recovered Fox’s physique six days after she vanished from Monterey Bay, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Monday night time. Fox was recognized primarily based on private objects recovered together with her stays, together with a shark-deterrent band worn on her ankle.

“Erica was doing what she loved — connected to the ocean, alive in her element. That matters. She didn’t lose her life in fear, but in passion,” Juan Heredia, a rescue diver who searched tirelessly for Fox, wrote in an announcement.

A widely known determine within the native open-water swimming group, Fox was a co-founder of the Kelp Krawlers, a Pacific Grove-based group that swims year-round in Monterey Bay.

A pal and fellow swimmer, Sara Rubin, was amongst a gaggle of 15 swimmers current when Fox disappeared. Rubin later wrote concerning the incident in native information outlet Monterey County Now.

“A harbor seal swam under me for close to a minute as I approached the beach, one of those wildlife-human interactions that we cherish,” Rubin wrote. “Like the other swimmers, I was unaware that a tragedy was happening, with only the sounds of my own strokes splashing.”

While the group was within the water, two witnesses reported the incident from shore round midday, telling Pacific Grove police {that a} swimmer could have encountered a shark, division officers mentioned. When Rubin and the others returned to the seashore, they realized Fox was not accounted for.

Police and hearth crews from Pacific Grove and Monterey shortly launched a search-and-rescue operation, supported by the U.S. Coast Guard, the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office, California State Parks and a number of plane and vessels, authorities mentioned. Beaches in Pacific Grove and Monterey closed for days as a precaution.

Despite greater than 15 hours of looking throughout roughly 84 sq. nautical miles, crews have been unable to find Fox, and the energetic search was suspended later that day, in line with police.

Divers together with Heredia and Fox’s husband, Jean-François Vanreusel, continued scouring the rocky shoreline till Fox’s stays werefound by legislation enforcement on Dec. 27 a number of miles north of Lovers Point. Cal Fire crews used a rope system to retrieve the physique of the swimmer, clad in a black-and-blue wetsuit, from a distant stretch of seashore south of Davenport, in line with officers.

“Today, at approximately 2:00 p.m., a body was recovered from the ocean south of Davenport Beach,” the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office mentioned in an announcement. “Due to the close proximity to the recent shark attack victim in Monterey County, our agency is working closely with the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office and the Pacific Grove Police Department regarding the recovery.”

Sheriff’s officers didn’t establish the physique as Fox till Monday night time. Officials mentioned a coroner’s report could be launched as soon as out there.

The encounter was the second shark-related incident at Lovers Point in three years. In 2022, 62-year-old Steve Bruemmer was rescued by passersby after a shark bit him throughout his thighs and stomach. Bruemmer belonged to the identical swimming membership.

Incidents of sharks attacking people stay uncommon in California. According to information from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, there have been about 230 documented shark incidents statewide since 1950, with simply 17 fatalities. Experts say the rise in reported encounters largely displays elevated ocean use and improved reporting, not a surge in aggressive shark conduct.

At a Sunday morning memorial, membership members and mates walked collectively alongside the bluffs at Lovers Point, tracing the route of Fox’s last mile within the water, the Mercury News reported.

In her column, Rubin remembered Fox as a “bright light of a person” and a passionate triathlete and author.

“She developed a deeply intimate relationship with the Pacific Ocean not by studying it or by looking at it, but by getting into it — again and again and again, on choppy days and gloriously calm days, logging what I can only guess are thousands of miles.”