15-Foot White Shark Grabs Surfer in First Bay Area Attack Since 1998

A Northern California surfer was injured Friday in the first Bay Area shark attack in nearly four years.

A white shark bit Lee Fontan, 24, of Bolinas at popular Stinson Beach 20 miles northwest of San Francisco.

An Eden Medical Center spokeswoman said Saturday that Fontan was still in intensive care “with injuries that were neither life-threatening nor limb-threatening” after shoulder and leg surgery.

Fontan was surfing about 300 feet from the north end of the beach when what witnesses said was a 15-foot-long white shark grabbed him in its teeth. He hit the shark on the nose and got back on his board. About a dozen other surfers helped him to shore.

“I looked over and this guy was about three or four feet out of the water in the shark’s mouth,” surfer John Gilbert, 33, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

“You could see its teeth, its gums. Its eyes were shut. Its gills were wide open, like shutters,” Gilbert said. “The whole dorsal fin on its back was out of the water.”

National Park Service authorities have barred anyone from entering the waters at Stinson Beach for at least five days.

The waters where Fontan was attacked are known as the Red Triangle. Sharks, mostly great whites, feed on seals and other prey from Bodega Bay to the Farallon Islands in Monterey Bay.

One witness to Friday’s attack said dorsal fins often can be seen circling off the Stinson Beach coast.

“I’ve seen two shark attacks now,” said the woman, a waitress at a cafe on the beach. “If you put in your time at the beach, you’re going to see it happen.”

The last time someone was attacked by a shark at Stinson Beach was in August 1998. Jonathan Kathrein, 16, was boogie boarding on his last day of summer vacation when a great white shark struck.