shark attack near Ft. Bragg

[FreediveWI]

The Coast Guard recovered a body Monday not far from where an Auburn man disappeared after an apparent shark attack.

Randall Fry, 50, disappeared Sunday afternoon while diving for abalone with a friend. Fry's friend told authorities that Fry disappeared after what he called a "big fish" appeared between them.

The friend made it back to the boat the two men were diving from, but Fry has not been seen since.

Affiliated with several fishing clubs, Fry was an influential member of the Recreational Fishing Alliance. "Randy was really instrumental in organizing recreational anglers," said Sonke Mastrup, a deputy director for the Wildlife and Inland Fisheries Division of the California Department of Fish and Game.

A Coast Guard spokesman says a body was recovered late Monday morning near Kibesillah Rock near Westport in Mendocino County. The spokesman says the body was being transported to a Coast Guard station on Noyo River, and authorities would conduct an autopsy. The body has not yet been positively identified. No other information was released by the Coast Guard as to the condition of the body.

Since the early 1950s, there have been 106 shark attacks on humans off the West Coast, including 10 that resulted in fatalities, said Steve Martarano of the Department of Fish and Game.

The last fatal attack was a year ago. In August 2003, a great white shark 15 to 18 feet long attacked a 50-year-old college instructor Deborah Franzman of Nipomo, who bled to death after taking a morning swim at Avila Beach.