Breezy’s Blog

Dog bites mail carrier. Mail carrier sues dog. Shark bites surfer. Spits.

Wouldn’t you rather have a shark spit on you than add you — at the bottom of — to the food chain? This is the season for the herring to enter bays and estuaries. A rather large population of herring are entering Tomales Bay right now. Even a half-blind shark wouldn’t mistake a surfer for a herring. But the herring bring the pinnipeds. The sharks follow the pinnipeds.

The sharks of the media were beaten by the little ol’ Navigator. The Nav had a worldwide exclusive for a few hours. Our coverage went online within 30 minutes of the 911 call. Within two hours the Nav had photos and filled out the story. Greg Schnitzer the intrepid photographer who recorded the event also had great photos of the surf. Greg was unaware of the shark attack until the Nav called. “Greg get your camera.” Greg lives on Dillon Beach.
Surfers and locals call it the “shark pit.” It also generates an unusually high and smooth surf when the wind and storm surges are right. From the pix the waves that day were up to 15 feet high. Surfers and the Coast Guard Motorlifeboat had some thrills. Within two hours of the shark attack the wind changed and the sea turned into chowder.

Greg’s pictures were on the front page of the Pee Dee, the Chron and several other media. Greg sold the pix to Associated Press. NBC network also bought them as well as the local TV stations.

Royce, the victim in all this, did not want to talk to reporters. He drove himself home and stayed out of sight. Before he left Royce did talk to Greg and Marin County Tomales station Fire Capt. Rick Wonneberger. Tomales Fire station reported they had received about 100 calls from media.