29-Year-Old Surfer Attacked By Shark Off The Oregon Coast

The Pacific Northwest is notorious for sharks. But once you break the Red Triangle’s northern tip of Bodega Bay, reports become much less common, probably because the surfing pop significantly thins.

Yesterday, a 29-year-old surfer from Portland was bitten off Indian Beach near Ecola State Park, according to CNN. Joseph Tanner, the victim, was flown to the local hospital. With “serious bites to his upper thigh and lower leg, according to police,” says CNN.

The attack occurred around four pm. And according to an interview with KPTV, Jeff Rose, a witness to the attack described Tanner’s injuries as “pretty gruesome.”

Steve Gehrig, another witness to told KOIN, “He just lurched real funny – it looked like he slipped off his board, but it was more violent than just a slip.”

And according to The Daily Astorian, firefighter David Norris said Joseph fought back during the attack, “punching the shark in its face.”

Joseph is also a nurse and directed his first aid when he made landfall.

There has not been an attack in Oregon since 2013 according to online databases. Out of the previous 28 shark attacks recorded, only one has proven fatal off the Oregon Coast.