Diver was 10th great white fatality off California coast
Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2005 3:22 am
Diver was 10th great white fatality off California coast
FORT BRAGG, Calif. (AP) -- Randy Fry loved the ocean. On an August afternoon, it killed him when a shark struck suddenly, making Fry the 10th known great white fatality off the California coast.
Fry, who loved fishing and diving for abalone and spent much of his time organizing anglers and lobbying for recreational fishing, was floating on the surface above a kelp bed when he was attacked.
His friend, Cliff Zimmerman, said he thinks Fry didn't know what hit him.
"It was the most dramatic thing I ever saw in my life," Zimmerman, who was swimming alongside him, told the San Francisco Chronicle. "It's just not real. This monster came so fast, it happened so fast and was over so fast you think, 'How can this happen?"'
The odds of being attacked by a shark are long. Hundreds of thousands of people swim, dive or surf along the California coast. In the 54 years shark attacks have been recorded, there have been 86 attacks.
Zimmerman said Fry would get mad when there was talk about sharks attacking divers and say the odds were a hundred times greater of getting killed driving to the beach.
Friends remember Fry, 50, as a generous and gregarious man who made friends easily. He was the director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance and spent hours working on everything from the size of the catch to the length of the season.
"The politics of all this just gets to you after awhile," said Bob Franko, who is the president of the Coastside Fishing Club in El Granada, in San Mateo County. "After awhile, you say, 'I just want to go fishing.' But Randy wouldn't do that. He'd stick to it."
No one is sure how many great whites are off the California coast. John McCosker, chair of aquatic biology at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, estimates the number is in the hundreds.
Great whites inhabit inshore waters and are most often found in the so-called "red triangle" from Ano Nuevo Island on the San Mateo County coast to the Farallon Islands to Bodega Head in Sonoma County.
Great whites are most frequently seen in fall, when salmon begin to return to the inland rivers. Seals and sea lions feed on the salmon; sharks feed on them.
Unlike in the movies, where sharks cruise the surface with their dorsal fins sticking above the water, sharks attack from below, McCosker said, using speed and strength to immobilize prey.
Fry was killed Aug. 15 as he and Zimmerman were diving for abalone near Westport.
The shark first brushed by Zimmerman. "I yelled, 'Randy! Randy!"' Zimmerman said.
Another friend, Red Bartley, who was watching from the boat said the attack was over in seconds. "I saw the pool of blood spread across the surface of the water and I knew Randy was gone."
McCosker said the shark probably was looking to attack a sea lion on the surface.
"It was a case of mistaken identity," he said.
Zimmerman swam for his life and was pulled aboard by Bartley.
In minutes, three helicopters were at the cove, but searchers did not find Fry's headless body until Monday. On Sept. 3, a beachcomber found the head.
FORT BRAGG, Calif. (AP) -- Randy Fry loved the ocean. On an August afternoon, it killed him when a shark struck suddenly, making Fry the 10th known great white fatality off the California coast.
Fry, who loved fishing and diving for abalone and spent much of his time organizing anglers and lobbying for recreational fishing, was floating on the surface above a kelp bed when he was attacked.
His friend, Cliff Zimmerman, said he thinks Fry didn't know what hit him.
"It was the most dramatic thing I ever saw in my life," Zimmerman, who was swimming alongside him, told the San Francisco Chronicle. "It's just not real. This monster came so fast, it happened so fast and was over so fast you think, 'How can this happen?"'
The odds of being attacked by a shark are long. Hundreds of thousands of people swim, dive or surf along the California coast. In the 54 years shark attacks have been recorded, there have been 86 attacks.
Zimmerman said Fry would get mad when there was talk about sharks attacking divers and say the odds were a hundred times greater of getting killed driving to the beach.
Friends remember Fry, 50, as a generous and gregarious man who made friends easily. He was the director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance and spent hours working on everything from the size of the catch to the length of the season.
"The politics of all this just gets to you after awhile," said Bob Franko, who is the president of the Coastside Fishing Club in El Granada, in San Mateo County. "After awhile, you say, 'I just want to go fishing.' But Randy wouldn't do that. He'd stick to it."
No one is sure how many great whites are off the California coast. John McCosker, chair of aquatic biology at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, estimates the number is in the hundreds.
Great whites inhabit inshore waters and are most often found in the so-called "red triangle" from Ano Nuevo Island on the San Mateo County coast to the Farallon Islands to Bodega Head in Sonoma County.
Great whites are most frequently seen in fall, when salmon begin to return to the inland rivers. Seals and sea lions feed on the salmon; sharks feed on them.
Unlike in the movies, where sharks cruise the surface with their dorsal fins sticking above the water, sharks attack from below, McCosker said, using speed and strength to immobilize prey.
Fry was killed Aug. 15 as he and Zimmerman were diving for abalone near Westport.
The shark first brushed by Zimmerman. "I yelled, 'Randy! Randy!"' Zimmerman said.
Another friend, Red Bartley, who was watching from the boat said the attack was over in seconds. "I saw the pool of blood spread across the surface of the water and I knew Randy was gone."
McCosker said the shark probably was looking to attack a sea lion on the surface.
"It was a case of mistaken identity," he said.
Zimmerman swam for his life and was pulled aboard by Bartley.
In minutes, three helicopters were at the cove, but searchers did not find Fry's headless body until Monday. On Sept. 3, a beachcomber found the head.