COSTA MESA : Shark Bites Worker in Arm at Pool Hall

An aquarium maintenance worker underwent surgery after a 4-foot lemon shark bit him in the arm at a swank pool hall and nightclub, authorities said.

Steve Rosenbloom, 34, was bitten when he and a co-worker tried to catch a shark to move it from a 2,000-gallon aquarium at the Shark Club, 841 W. Baker St., said Costa Mesa Fire Department spokeswoman Susan Wood.

“Rosenbloom was holding the tail when the other gentleman inadvertently lost control of the head,” Wood said. “The shark turned around and it took a bite.”

Paramedics responded to a call at about 10:50 a.m. Monday, Wood said, and quickly took Rosenbloom to Hoag Hospital.

“According to the medics, his arm was just shredded,” Wood said. She said her department has never before been called for help after a shark bite.

Hoag Hospital spokeswoman Maureen Mazzatenta said Rosenbloom, a Santa Ana resident, asked that no information be released about his condition. “I think he was just a little overwhelmed, and wanted to concentrate on just getting well,” she said.

Mazzatenta confirmed doctors gave Rosenbloom about 100 stitches to close his wounds. Several calls to Reef Systems, the company Rosenbloom works for, were not returned.

Shark Club bartender Paul Salay said other workers from Reef Systems took the shark to the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at the UC San Diego after the accident. The lemon shark and a whitetip shark that also swam in the aquarium had grown too large and both had to be removed, Salay said.

Salay said the club will continue its popular Friday-night shark feedings when two other sharks arrive in the next couple of weeks. Bartender Paul Duffy also was once bitten by a shark when he fed it some squid, Salay said. He received 16 stitches.

After that, employees began to feed the sharks with a mechanical hand, Salay said. “We take some extra precautions now.”