Corona del Mar State Beach reopens after shark attack
Corona del Mar State Beach, the last stretch of sand to remain closed after a 52-year-old woman was bitten by a shark while swimming off the coast Sunday, reopened Wednesday morning.
Lifeguard crews who had been searching by boat and helicopter for shark activity in the water off Newport Beach reopened the state beach at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Lifeguards had reopened the beach between the Balboa Pier and the Wedge at about noon Tuesday.
Maria Korcsmaros, a personal trainer and aerobics instructor from Corona, was swimming along the buoys about 150 yards offshore as part of her training for an Ironman competition scheduled for July in Canada when she was attacked at about 4:15 p.m. Sunday, according to officials from Orange County Global Medical Center in Santa Ana, where Korcsmaros is recovering from surgery.
Korcsmaros had multiple teeth marks on her right side extending from her shoulder area to her lower pelvis. She also had lacerations on her right arm, an open chest wound and multiple rib fractures and had lost about a liter of blood, doctors said.
She was moved out of the coronary care unit and is “beginning a new journey toward recovery,” her husband, Alex, wrote in a comment on her Facebook page.
Officials said they are not certain about the species of shark that bit Korcsmaros.
However, Chris Lowe, head of the Shark Lab at Cal State Long Beach, said Tuesday that based on the size of her wounds it was likely an adult great white measuring more than 10 feet long.
Twitter: @HannahFryTCN
