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Written by City News Service - A 10 foot long great white shark, hooked by a fisherman and fighting for its life, took a bite on a distance swimmer in the waters off the Manhattan Beach Pier today.
The shark -- estimated by county lifeguards to be 10 feet long -- bit the 40-year-old man in his upper right torso and then spat him out, said County Fire Inspector Rick Flores. The swimmer had stable life signs and moderate injuries, and was bleeding but conscious and talking to paramedics as he was loaded into an ambulance among weekend beachgoers on The Strand just south of the pier.
A popular stretch of beach one mile north and south of the pier was closed to swimming, as a county helicopter ordered people out of the 69-degree water on a holiday weekend. It was reopened shortly after 3 p.m.
About 20 minutes after the bite, the Manhattan Beach police Department brought in the sheriff's Aero Bureau for help in locating the shark, said Sgt. Morrie Zager of the sheriff's Aero Bureau.
A chopper crew located the great white about 200 yards north of the Manhattan Pier, Zager said. Deputies directed a lifeguard boat and a Redondo Beach Harbor Patrol boat to the shark, Zager said.
``A paddle boarder was directed away from the shark by the boat crews,'' the sheriff's sergeant said. ``After approximately 30 minutes, the boats were able to coax the shark out deeper water and away from the pier.''
Officials got first word at 9:33 a.m. from 1011 The Strand, a dispatcher said. That address is about two blocks south of the Manhattan Beach pier.
A police lieutenant with the Manhattan Beach Police Department said officers were dispatched to the scene at 9:29 a.m. on a report of ``an ocean rescue, male in the water'' call to assist with crowd control.
A photographer posted photos of a swimmer being loaded into an ambulance following the incident.
The beach was reopened around 2 p.m. after the shark was seen swimming west.
