A swimmer has survived an attack by a shark that scientists believe is comparable in size to the largest great white ever to be recorded.
Steve Bruemmer, 62, was swimming at Lover’s Point Beach in Monterey, California, on Wednesday when a . Bruemmer lost 30 pints of blood – but is miraculously expected to make a solid recovery.
Based on a forensic examination of the bite marks on Bruemmer, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife confirmed that the shark was a great white. Scientists estimate that the shark measured as long as 20 feet, which is the largest that great whites typically grow, reported.
If true, the California shark’s length matches that of Deep Blue, the biggest great white that has ever been recorded. Deep Blue, a 2.5-ton female estimated to be more than 50 years old, was filmed swimming 550 miles south of Mexico’s Guadalupe Island.
Great white sharks can live up to 60 years and do not stop growing, although their growth slows as they get older.
The creature that attacked Bruemmer, as described by experts, is bigger than a two-ton, 17-foot female shark seen off the Nova Scotia coast in 2020.
After Bruemmer was attacked, officials closed the beach to the public and the Monterey Fire Department deployed drones to look for the shark, but were not able to spot it.
Police officer Paul Bandy and his wife, nurse Aimee Johns, were on paddle boards and reached Bruemmer after seeing the water turn red from his blood.
Surf instructor Heath Braddock got the children he was instructing safely to shore before going back out to the ocean with two surfboards.
‘He was 300 feet out. A lot of tourists cry wolf and cry out “shark!” It’s rarely the case. It’s usually a dolphin,’ Braddock said.
‘But this guy continued to scream frantically. I saw the pool of blood around him so I knew it was real.’
The two paddle boarders helped get Bruemmer on the bigger of the two surfboards.
‘I pulled on his good arm and they lifted the other arm that had been bitten,’ Braddock said. ‘His leg wound was the most pronounced – his bone was fully showing. Most of the damage was on his stomach the front side.’
Making it back to the beach, the three heroes ripped Bruemmer’s wetsuit and wrapped tourniquets around his wounds to slow the bleeding. He was transported to Natividad Medical Center where he underwent a two-hour surgery needing 30 pints of blood to offset the ‘tremendous amount’ he bled.
Bruemmer, who is still recovering at the hospital, said the shark attack was ‘unlucky’ but that he ‘just had so much good luck’ after that.
‘The day was so calm and warm, and the beach was crowded. There were no waves, and there was no chop,’ Bruemmer said. ‘So people could hear me yelling “Help!” from a great distance.’
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