A body was found in the water on Saturday on the north side of Monterey Bay, California, in the same area where a swimmer disappeared almost a week ago in a suspected shark attack, according to the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office.
Authorities have since identified the woman as 55-year-old triathlete Erica Fox, whose body was pulled from the ocean just south of Davenport Beach around 2 pm on Saturday, according to KRON.
“Due to the close proximity to the recent shark attack victim in Monterey County, our agency is working closely with the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office and the Pacific Grove Police Department regarding the recovery,” the sheriff's office said. “The investigation remains ongoing.”
While earlier, California State Parks confirmed that the body recovered from the water was a woman, they did not confirm if she matched the description of Fox, who disappeared in the area nearly a week before.
On Sunday, Fox was reported missing. She was last seen at Lovers Point in Pacific Grove near the bay's south side. There are approximately 30 miles between Lovers Point and Davenport, where the body was recovered on Saturday.
Fox, in a 2022 interview with The Independent said she felt comfortable in the water, but also understood its dangers.
Fox said at the time that shark encounters reported in Pacific Grove hadn’t stopped her or her fellow swimmers from spending time in the water. She said she’d never encountered a shark herself, but understood and respected that the ocean was foreign territory for humans.
“As soon as you dive in the water, you’re immediately in a foreign land. We are the ocean ecology’s humbled guests,” she told The Independent.
She added that she felt “more vulnerable riding my bike than being in the water.”
Two Monterey beaches were closed on Sunday "as a precautionary measure due to unconfirmed shark incident at Lovers Point in Pacific Grove," according to a City of Monterey social media post.
A pair of witnesses reportedly told authorities that they believe that Fox may have encountered a shark on the day she disappeared, according to the San Luis Obispo Tribune.
It has not been confirmed that Fox was involved in a shark attack, nor has it been confirmed that the body found in the water is connected to a shark attack.
Chris Lowe, the director of the Shark Lab at California State University, Long Beach, told the Santa Cruz Sentinel that the coastline near Lovers Point attracts sea lions and seals, which are primary prey animals for white sharks.
Sharks migrate from the more bottomless ocean to the coast in October to feed and typically remain in the area until January.
“They will hunt and they will patrol off these areas where these animals congregate,” Lowe told the outlet.
Despite their presence, shark bites remain extremely rare.
Since 1950, there have been 16 people killed by sharks in California, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. All cases were confirmed as white sharks, except for one incident in which the species was not confirmed.
In the Monterey area, there have been 13 shark bite incidents since 1950. Most of the victims were divers or surfers. Only two swimmers have been attacked by sharks since 1950.
Rescue workers launched an 84-square-nautical-mile search of the area where Fox disappeared. Still, that search was suspended after 15 hours, according to a joint statement from the Monterey Fire Department, Pacific Grove Police Department, Monterey County Sheriff's Office, and the U.S. Coast Guard.
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