LOS ANGELES (AP) — A woman who was attacked by a shark in Southern California was all smiles in a photograph taken as she recovers from a large bite wound that stretches from her shoulder to her pelvis.
The photo was released Monday as a new flurry of shark sightings forced the closures of Orange County beaches.
The photo shows Maria Korcsmaros, 52, grinning in her hospital bed, wearing a gown with a cast covering nearly the entire length of her right arm. It was taken Thursday and provided by the Orange County Global Medical Center.
Korcsmaros — a mother and triathlete — was expected to recover from the bite she received May 29 at Corona del Mar State Beach, doctors said. The shark that attacked her was not found.
The large single bite she suffered suggests the shark was over 10 feet long and most likely a great white, said Chris Lowe, director of the Shark Lab at California State University, Long Beach.
Meanwhile, authorities reopened a 2-mile stretch of Sunset Beach and Surfside Beach that shut down after several sharks were spotted Sunday off the coast by a sheriff’s helicopter crew, then shut down Sunset Beach again about five hours later after another sighting of three large sharks by lifeguards.
Closures following a shark sighting typically last between 12 to 24 hours.