The Santa Cruz County Sheriff-Coroner identified Fox as the victim found floating near Davenport a week after she went missing on Dec. 27, 2025, about 25 miles north of Lovers Point in Pacific Grove. Although multiple witnesses reported seeing a shark near where Fox disappeared, the coroner did not officially confirm a shark bite until Thursday.

Erica Fox's husband says she was still in her wetsuit and wearing a "shark band" designed to deter attacks when her body was recovered from the ocean.

Since 1956 there have been 18 notable shark attacks in County including 3 fatal attacks. Far fewer than articles about catching sharks.

Witnesses reported seeing a shark breach just offshore at Lovers Point that morning, where Fox was leading a group of about a dozen swimmers. Many of them had purchased Sharkbanz-branded products after a 2022 attack injured fellow Kelp Krawlers member Steve Bruemmer, who survived but suffered serious injuries.

From bitten boards to fatalities, here’s what we know about some of the most notable shark encounters on the Central Coast over the years.

PORTLAND, Maine — Australian scientists tested the strength of bite-resistant wetsuits by allowing sharks to chomp the materials at sea and found that the suits can help keep swimmers safe. Fatal shark bites are vanishingly rare, with less than 50 ...

In the deep ocean, far from sunlight, a small shark has been quietly carving perfect circles of flesh out of animals many times its size. For decades, those neat, crater-like wounds on whales, tuna, and even other sharks were a forensic puzzle that hinted at a predator we rarely see but often notice after the

Officials from the V.I. Territorial Emergency Management Agency, Department of Planning and Natural Resources and volunteer organization St. Croix Rescue addressed circulating rumors, safety tips and the ongoing investigation into a fatal shark attack during a press conference at Government House Friday afternoon on St.