Del Mar Shark Incident | Scientists Use Water Samples and Victim’s Wetsuit to Test for Shark Dna

A 46-year-old swimmer was bitten in the torso, left arm and hand. He is expected to survive. He was swimming with the North County Ocean Swimmers at the time of the incident.

“He was shouting, ‘I’ve been bitten by a shark!’ We could see blood in the water, he said he had been bitten on his chest,” said swimmer Kevin Barrett. He rushed to help the victim.

“I didn’t know what I was swimming into. Was there going to be chunks out of him? Would we see a limb or a body part? I just didn’t know,” he added.

The shark encounter happened just before 9:00 a.m. about 100 yards offshore near Lifeguard Headquarters in Del Mar.

Barrett said he and another swimmer helped get the man back to shore. They were able to use a nearby surfer’s board as a gurney. He said the whole time, the victim was very calm.

“He was amazingly calm,” said Barrett. “You often hear of victims panicking, drowning their rescuer. I didn’t know what I was going out into, but he was incredibly calm, just explaining what happened.”

According to lifeguards, the victim went through surgery and was in the intensive care unit Monday.

See CBS8