FORT BRAGG, CA ---
The Coast Guard on Monday recovered the headless body of a nationally known sport fishing advocate who was killed Sunday by a great white shark while diving for abalone off the Mendocino Coast.
Randall "Randy" Fry's death is only the 10th fatality ever recorded along the West Coast from an encounter with the white shark, the ocean's deadliest predator.
It is the first fatal shark attack on California's North Coast in at least a half-century. Since 1959, 16 other people have been attacked by sharks off Mendocino, Sonoma and Marin counties, but all survived.
The shark, estimated to be 16 to 18 feet long, struck the 50-year-old Auburn man at about
4 p.m. Sunday in shallow water north of Ten Mile River Beach near Westport.
"It was over in five seconds," said Red Bartley of Modesto, a friend of the victim's, who witnessed the fatal encounter from a boat.
Cliff Zimmerman of Fort Bragg was in the water with Fry but escaped injury.
Bartley, president of the California Striped Bass Association, said he helped Zimmerman out of the water and into the boat before making a mayday call for help.
"When I saw the pool of blood spread across the surface of the water, I knew Randy was gone," Bartley said.
The three men had put their boat in the water in a sheltered cove at Kibesillah Rock, about 10 miles north of Fort Bragg.
Fry and Zimmerman, long-time friends, had dived together at the site in search of abalone for 30 years. The men knew it was shark territory, but like many divers, they believed the chances of an encounter were minimal.
"Despite a public fear of sharks, the fact is attacks are rare and experienced divers and surfers know that," said Sean Van Sommeran, director of the Pelagic Shark Research Foundation in Santa Cruz.
The shark may have mistaken Fry for a seal or sea lion, Van Sommeran said. Fry was diving head first in about 15 feet of water when he was attacked. The shark apparently ripped Fry's head and neck from his body, a move sharks usually reserve for their preferred targets --- seals or sea lions.
Studies show more than 40 percent of initial strikes by sharks on sea lions or seals are to their heads, said A. Peter Klimley, a shark expert at UC Davis.
Klimley, who lives in Petaluma and has done research at the Bodega Marine Laboratory, said he doubts the shark knew it was attacking a human. Most often, he said, it's a case where the shark mistakes the human for a marine mammal.
Robert Lea, a shark expert for the state Department of Fish and Game, agreed.
"Sharks have no interest in feeding on humans. But as an ambush predator, they may mistake a human in a dark wet suit for a marine mammal," Lea said.
Until Fry's death, the state's most recent shark fatality occurred in August 2003 when a 50-year-old college instructor was attacked while swimming off a San Luis Obispo County beach. The victim was in the habit of swimming alongside seals.
The cove where Sunday's fatal attack occurred is sheltered by sheer, steep cliffs that make is accessible only by boat. A buoy marked the spot where Fry's body was pulled from the water Monday morning.
Search and rescue divers will wait up to five days before entering the water to search for Fry's remains in hopes the shark leaves the area, Mendocino County Sheriff's Lt. Don Miller said.
As gruesome as the attack was, Miller said he doesn't believe Fry suffered.
"It was so quick I don't think he had a chance to feel anything," Miller said.
Fry was described by friends and colleagues as a warm, witty man, experienced in diving and all areas of sport fishing.
"He was not some average diver. He knew where he was, and what he was doing," said Jim Martin, a Fort Bragg fishery advocate.
Martin and others described Fry as a tireless advocate on behalf of recreational fishing, a man who spent much of his time on the road attending meetings, conferences and legislative sessions.
Jim Donofrio, executive director of the Redwood Fishing Alliance's Washington-area headquarters, hailed Fry as an important leader in recreational fishing circles, and as a personal friend.
"I can barely talk about it. It's absolutely incredible that this of all things happened to him." Donofrio said.
Martin, Donofrio and other friends said Fry was the divorced father of a grown son. He is survived by his mother and other family members who live in the Sacramento area.
On the Saturday before his death, Fry arrived in Fort Bragg for a fund-raising dinner along with about 130 other fishing enthusiasts in Noyo Harbor. Donofrio had planned to join him, but an illness kept him in the East.
"That was his life. He was always there for the fishermen," Donofrio said.
