The animal was between 14 and 20 feet in length, which is consistent with a great white, Blair said.The friend apparently tried to get Ransom out of the water. "I think he [Ransom] was dead before he made it to shore," Lt. Julie McCammon of the Sheriff's Department told AOL News.The shark was likely swimming around as the pair fled from the water, Blair said.Swimmers should stay out of the water in the area, but it's unlikely that the shark is out hunting humans, he added. "There is really nothing else I could think of in a normal course of events who would do this except a great white. He was from Riverside County, just outside Los Angeles.The area where today's attack occurred is a popular surfing spot and is adjacent to the Vandenberg Air Force Base, which responded to the incident. Authorities quickly closed Surf Beach and two other beaches nearby for at least 72 hours. KEYT-TV reported that the shark bit off the surfer's leg and he bled to death.The great white "is the likely culprit," said Steve Blair, assistant curator of the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, Calif., and a shark expert. "The last great white shark fatality in California was two years ago, when a triathlete swimmer was bitten in the leg off the coast of San Diego.
– A UCSB student died yesterday after being attacked by a shark while boogie boarding off the coast of Santa Barbara. Lucas Ransom, 19, was pulled off his board about 100 yards from shore just before 9am; his left leg was ripped off at his pelvis, according to the LA Times. Ransom was just a few feet away from friend Matthew Garcia—who said the two had joked the night before about the chances they would be attacked by a shark—at the time. He said, “Help me, dude,” before disappearing in the waves, Garcia said. "You just saw a red wave and this water is blue, and it was just red, the whole wave." Garcia saw his friend's body board pop up shortly thereafter, swam to the body, and did chest compressions as he brought him to shore of Surf Beach, an open-to-the-public spot on Vandenberg Air Force Base, located some 130 miles northwest of LA. Ransom, described by his parents as an avid swimmer once credited for saving a drowning child at a local pool, was a junior majoring in Chemical Engineering. Based on the size of Ransom's injury, experts believe he may have been attacked by a great white. Click here for more.