Diver Pounded Its Nose, Escaped : Shark Survivor’s Tale: ‘He Wouldn’t Let Go’

Larry Stroup, a veteran diver on his first shark-filming expedition, was capturing what he hoped would be dramatic footage.

The camera was rolling and a five-foot blue shark--a species not known for its aggressiveness--was banging its snout against the bubble-like lens. Moments later, Stroup was fighting for his life.

“I felt a tug on my arm, and I looked over and his mouth was around my arm,” Stroup, 46, recalled Monday, a day after surviving a rare shark attack off the Channel Islands about 35 miles west of Santa Catalina Island. “He just wouldn’t let go.”

Stroup, an Albuquerque, N.M., real estate developer, smiled cheerfully while recounting the harrowing incident at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, where he is recovering from emergency surgery late Sunday after being bitten on both arms. Doctors said he may be hospitalized a week and may suffer at least temporary loss of movement in his right arm, where the shark’s teeth ripped through muscles and ligaments.

But, as a happy Stroup was quick to point out, it could have been worse.

“Compared to the alternatives, it was a very good event,” he quipped. “Right now, I couldn’t tell you if I will dive with sharks again.”

From a wheelchair with an intravenous bottle hanging above him, a refreshed, pajama-clad Stroup told reporters there was no obvious reason that the shark turned on him. The attack occurred late Sunday morning about 10 miles northwest of Santa Barbara Island.

Stroup was one of several divers aboard the 60-foot Scuba Lover, a vessel hired out of Ventura Marina for a three-day recreational cruise aimed at observing and photographing the blue shark near a popular diving spot known as Lost Reef.

Members of the expedition--including an experienced shark diver and a veteran marine biologist--conducted many of their observations from within a 10-foot shark cage, but they also ventured outside the protective cage on several occasions to get a better look at the sharks, Stroup said.

The practice is routine when viewing blue sharks if there are few of them and they are behaving passively, he added.

On Sunday, during a dive only a few feet below the surface, two senior divers left the shark cage in waters occupied by eight or 10 blue sharks, Stroup recalled. At their signal that it was safe, Stroup also emerged from the cage, leaving one other diver behind. Almost immediately, he said, a shark approached him, bumping its nose repeatedly against his video camera.

Not Unusual

The behavior was not unusual, so the amateur film maker kept on shooting his adventurous home video.

“I had just gotten out of the cage about 15 seconds (earlier),” Stroup said. “There was nothing to warn us.

“It was butting its head against my camera, so I can’t really say it snuck up on me. What surprised me was when he reached out and grabbed my arm.”

Stroup did not feel any pain at first, only a strong tug, he said. But the shark held tight to his right arm. With his camera and his left arm, Stroup tried desperately to free himself from the shark’s jaws as blood billowed out of his wet suit.

“All I could see was its snout,” the diver said of the shark. “I saw its teeth. They weren’t that big, but they looked sharp.”

And then, faster than he could say Peter Benchley, the attack was over. His pounding on the shark’s nose caused it to turn away, and he made a successful dash to the boat before any other sharks could track the scent of his fresh blood.

“It only lasted three to five seconds,” Stroup estimated. “I was only about 30 or 35 feet from the boat . . . (and) I swam as rapidly with my fins as I could. I did not see any other sharks (pursuing me) . . . .

“I was only in the water about 10 seconds after (the attack).”

Veterans Shocked

Veteran shark divers on the chartered vessel were shocked by the incident because blue sharks rarely attack humans or any other large mammals, Stroup said. Divers managed to stop the heavy bleeding before Coast Guard personnel arrived to help administer aid, he said.

Doctors were worried that the deep bites would become infected, but so far his recovery has been free of problems, they said.

Stroup, whose past diving expeditions had been in the Caribbean, had come to California strictly to film sharks as recreation during the three-day Labor Day weekend, he said. The father of two--whose 20- and 28-year-old sons are also scuba divers--said he telephoned his wife in Albuquerque early Sunday to break the news of the incident.

“You did what?’ ” she said.

Stroup recounted the conversation and grinned when reporters thanked him for discussing the ordeal.

“I’m glad I could,” he said.