Deep Dark Water - Shark Attack StoriesIts Not Safe.               Shark Attack Chronicles.

Date: June 21, 2008 9 AM
Location: West Cove Catalina Island Southern California
Shark: 15 Foot Great White

It was a family day the Pereira family would never forget! Bettina, her husband Andrew, and their three children took a fishing boat to the West Cove of Catalina Island on June 21st, 2008.

Betty decided to take a kayak out around that part of the cove. She was in 50 feet deep water, which quickly dropped off to nearly 500 feet beyond her starting location. Suddenly she felt what seemed like a boat slam into the back of her kayak!

Looking around, she turned and saw the huge body of a shark coming up fast from underneath her kayak. The force of the shark’s next impact threw her and the kayak into the air, Bettina landing directly on the sharks back, feet first. She pushed off of the shark’s body and started racing towards the family’s boat.

Later Bettina said that all she could think about as she headed for the boat was that her family was going to watch her get killed by a shark. She was eventually picked up by another boat in the area whose crew had witnessed the event. They said she was in giddy with a certain euphoria over still being alive.

Sources: sharkattacksurvivors.com, lionofjudah

Date: April 25, 2008 7 AM
Location: Solona Beach, California
Shark: Great White

“They were swimming and the victim apparently yelled ‘Shark’, or words to that effect, and the witnesses that were in the water apparently saw him actually being lifted out of the water and dragged under,” reported police Lieutenant Phil Brust in the aftermath of the violent shark attack on Dr. Dave Martin.

Every Friday morning for the past 4-5 years, Dr. Dave Martin has gone on a weekly training swim with the San Diego Triathlon Club. An expert swimmer familiar with the waters, Dr. Dave Martin was training with members of the club close to 7AM local time. Somewhere, about 150 yards offshore, a great white shark was lurking.

Apparently mistaking Martin for a seal, the 12-17 foot long adult great white shark, charged Martin from below.

The attack was on Martin’s leg, actually lifting him completely out of the water while its razor teeth inflicted deep, gashing wounds. Two swimmers that had been nearly twenty yards ahead heard the screams and raced back to pull him towards the beach. Martin was taken by truck to a lifeguard station nearby where he passed away from his wounds at 7:49 AM.

The doctor and his family were from Solona Beach, California, about fourteen miles North West of San Diego, where he had worked as a veterinarian.

Kevin Martin, the oldest of his four children was interviewed by msnbc, “I’m thankful that it wasn’t a long, drawn out process. We’re sad that he was taken away from us so quickly. We didn’t get a chance to say goodbye. We weren’t ready for him to go. But I’m glad that it was quick and relatively painless.”

Hannah Martin, the youngest of the family, and also a swimmer, said that she never thought that for a million years something like this would happen and that she had been swimming in the Solona Beach area for as long as she can remember.

“He was the rock of our family, he taught me so many lessons”, she said.
They describe him as a great guy who loved swimming, the ocean and the beach very much, an incredible family man.

Jeff Martin, an avid surfer, actually went back out to the water the day after the attack, despite the obvious warnings. He said that there was something soothing about going back out, and made it a point to go surfing the next day. He wanted a way to say good bye and that “I love you, Dad, and I miss you.”

Sources: msnbc.com, bloomberg.com, huffingtonpost.com