San Luis Obispo, Calif. — A bodyboarder was attacked by an ideal white shark in central California on Christmas Eve and died inside minutes, official experiences have concluded.
Tomas Abraham Butterfield, 42, was bitten within the head, chest and shoulder within the Morro Bay assault and died from "problems of a number of penetrating blunt pressure traumatic accidents," in line with a coroner's report, The Tribune of San Luis Obispo County reported Tuesday.
A bit of what gave the impression to be a shark's tooth was discovered on his physique, the Tribune stated, citing a report by a sheriff's detective that was amongst paperwork launched to the paper underneath a public information request.
The scale or age of the shark wasn't estimated, however the radius of 1 chunk mark was as giant as 16 inches, in line with the detective's report.
Butterfield was attacked on Dec. 24 whereas bodyboarding simply north of Morro Rock. The Sacramento man had been visiting his mom and brother for the vacations.
Butterfield was pulled from the waves after a surfer noticed him face down within the water, nonetheless tethered to his bodyboard. He died on the scene.
Within the coroner's report, a pathologist famous that Butterfield had a fractured cranium, crushed ribs and different accidents, together with to the inferior vena cava, a big vein that carries blood from the torso and decrease physique to the guts.
Dr. Joye Carter stated Butterfield died inside minutes.
A DNA pattern taken in the course of the post-mortem confirmed that the accidents have been from an ideal white shark, in line with Mike Harris of California Division of Fish and Wildlife, which assisted within the investigation.
It wasn't clear whether or not the shark attacked simply as soon as or made a number of lunges.
Morro Bay is about 200 miles north of Los Angeles.
Shark assaults elevated world wide in 2021 following three consecutive years of decline, in line with a report in January.
The U.S. as soon as once more reported essentially the most assaults and Florida accounted for almost 40% of unprovoked bites worldwide.
Researchers with the Worldwide Shark Assault File recorded 73 unprovoked incidents final 12 months, in comparison with 52 bites in 2020, in line with the report.