A surfer has been attacked by a shark, the second incident off the California coast this month.
Witnesses said several people were surfing just after noon on Tuesday off the Eureka Coast, Humboldt County, when the 25-year-old man started screaming for help.
The injured surfer was able to get himself to shore, but had suffered serious bite wounds to his torso and was bleeding heavily, according to witnesses. The shark also bit a chunk out of his surf board.
The Eureka Times Standard reported that the man was taken to St. Joseph Hospital and was listed in fair condition.
'Bleeding out pretty good'
A trained emergency medical technician just happened to be on the beach and started treatment immediately. The injured man was then loaded into the back of a pickup truck, and rushed off the beach where he was transferred to a waiting ambulance.
"We could just see that he was really gashed up and he had four or five serious gashes from his nipple down to his hip and was bleeding out pretty good so we hopped on him right away," an unidentified man said.
The victim underwent surgery late Tuesday afternoon.
A surfer in Santa Barbara was killed by a shark last week. Francisco Solorio was bitten in the upper torso, but did not survive. The shark in that attack was determined to be a 15-to-16-foot great white.
Solorio's death marked the first fatal shark attack in the United States this year.
Also on NBCBayArea.com: Surfer killed by great white shark
In 2011, there were 75 attacks worldwide, with 29 U.S. attacks, according to annual records kept by the Florida Museum of Natural History's International Shark Attack File. Of all 2011 attacks, three were in California.
The worldwide figure for 2011 included 12 fatal attacks, none of which were in the United States.
