© 2024 KENW
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

After Shark Kills Surfer, Central California Beach Closed

The beach is closed near  Vandenberg Air Force Base after Tuesday's shark attack.
U.S. Air Force photo
/
Reuters /Landov
The beach is closed near Vandenberg Air Force Base after Tuesday's shark attack.

Surf Beach near Vandenberg Air Force Base along California's central coast is closed after the death of a 39-year-old man who was attacked by a shark Tuesday while surfing.

The man's death came two years and a day after a shark killed a 19-year-old man along the same stretch of the coast.

Word of Tuesday's attack has prompted the Los Angeles Times to post some shark survival tips:

-- "Swim calmly toward shore."

-- "Don't turn your back on the shark" (you need to know where it is).

-- If the shark gets aggressive, hit its "nose, eyes or gills." That might surprise the shark enough to make it go away.

-- Tell authorities, so that they can warn others.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.