“They saw a shark breach the water with what appeared to be a human body in its mouth.”
In one of the ghastlier ironies, although hardly surprising given the sorta fish that patrol the waters off Monterey in northern California, the body of swimmer Erica Fox has been found, identified by the Sharkbanz bracelet on her ankle.
The body of Erica Fox, a 55-year-old triathlete and co-founder of the open-water swimming group Kelp Krawlers, was recovered on December 27, 2025, one week after she disappeared during a group swim off Lovers Point in Pacific Grove, California.
Authorities suspect Fox was killed by a Great White shark, following witness accounts of a large shark breaching the water near the swimmers around noon on December 21, with one observer reporting what appeared to be a human body in its mouth.
An extensive search involving the U.S. Coast Guard, Monterey County Sheriff’s Office, Pacific Grove police, divers, boats, helicopters, and drones covered a wide area but was suspended after about 15 hours.
Erica Fox’s remains were located south of Davenport Beach in Santa Cruz County, 25 miles north of the attack, by Cal Fire personnel.
Fox was still wearing her black wetsuit.
The body was identified by family members through distinctive items: a white Garmin fitness watch and a Sharkbanz 2, an electromagnetic shark-deterrent band worn on her ankle.
Examining the efficacy of SharkBanz
The device, which emits a magnetic field intended to disrupt sharks’ electroreceptive senses and create an aversive stimulus, had been adopted by many in the Kelp Krawlers group following a non-fatal great Great White shark incident involving another member in 2022.
As Chas Smith reported at the time,
Do you recall how surf brand Modom incorporated Sharkbanz tech into very expensive leashes ($180 in the U.S. $250 in Australia)? Do you recall how our friend’s at Stab jumped in with both feet, thrilling at the product and pushing it through parent company Surfstitch?
Earlier in the year, a Western Australian coroner ruled that even if the surfer Steven Payne had been wearing his SharkBanz when he was attacked and disppeared by a Great White shark in waist-deep water, it wouldn’t have done a damn thing.
If you’re a believer in these things, buy em here. One fifty shekels or thereabouts.
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This very much feels like a ploy by big pharma to get millions more on Ozempic and have insurance companies cover it, increasing premiums for everyone. The same way they made blood pressure numbers impossible to achieve with out BP drugs. Don’t believe the hype.
Black wetsuit is asking for trouble, Look like a seal so they will treat you like one.
Shark won’t get some crappy little signal off the sharkbanz until the point of no return, By then it’s too late.
Why not have wetsuits in bright danger colours and had have teeth and eyes on it as well, Someone should at least test a theory on it.
Ahhh…the old and tired “mistaken for a seal” trope.
This is just something shark lovers/conservationists posing as experts still spout. Although it’s been proven that sharks have great eyesight and smell.
Fact is, they are just hungry sharks, hungry enough to wear a human makes a decent enough snack at that current moment.
Well clearly they don’t fucking work, as if we didn’t already know that.
If it was a breach attack, which is a visually initiated strategy, then it was already at ramming speed and committed by the time it came close to the field of any magnet small enough to fit in an anklet.
I wonder if they give you your money back if you survive an attack whilst wearing one?
Even a discount voucher would be appreciated.
Hahaha kin oath bruz
mud shark has been used to describe capitalist businessmen for……????
Shark banz as dumb as those shark eye stickers on the bottom of boards.
I think shark eye stickers more likely to work.
Well stick some on your leg and a shark banz on the other and see which one gets bitten off first.
Thinking about how dumb you’d have to be to believe Sharkbanz work while also thinking about how much safer I feel when buffered by a couple inches of PU.
The Shark Bandz worked
The shark did not eat the device
Take some antibiotics and check the waves. Just saw a clip of Ethan Osborne getting a chocolate brown barrel down there .
Waters ugly, I have to make an old man decision
My insurance quadruples on Friday, 4 months to medicare. Thank you Republican voters. Do I go without until my birthday?
Affordabe Care Act was the best insurance I have ever had.
PS C 4 that was last Friday
Maybe there’s a way to pay ACA dues for four months then switch.
I meant Osbournes footage was shot last week, it’s dogshit today
Brutal. Risky to wait four months. I guess if you didn’t drive your car or leave the house it might be ok. My friend who is an independent filmmaker in oside is going through the same shit.
Maybe sharkbanz are like uber drivers? Sure from time to time they have the odd accident but think of all the accidents that were avoided by those drunk idiots not driving.
I think more like Homer’s anti-tiger rock. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSVqLHghLpw
Maybe the efficacy of the banz tech is relative to the size ratio. Smaller animals are more deterred than a larger predator to which the stimulation is barely noticed. The tech may be good but the output isn’t adequate for animals over blah blah feet long? You might need these devices up and down the full length of legs and arms, lol.
Or the tech might be of the Power Balance kind of miracle. https://beachgrit.com/2018/05/read-when-lewis-samuels-destroyed-power-balance/
‘The body was identified by family members through a Sharkbanz 2, an electromagnetic shark-deterrent band worn on her ankle.’ So it’s at least useful for something
Com is just an idiot who loves himself. Get over.
Space star ordering?
“Surfed pumping crystal blue walls all morning with manta rays and dolphins”
and, quite likely on the east coast of Australia, several large sharks.
You just didn’t see them and they were not interested in you, today.
Maybe your Sharkbanz® is working –
Sharkbanz is about as effective as a Palestinian baby connected to an incubator in a hospital. Predators don’t care about laws, they just kill
You’re right. Hamas are predators. They just kill
What an absolute looser… Natalie, go to school please.
A true hero. Wore the electromagnetic dinner bell to keep the landlord on a single entrée rather than the whole buffet
It is supremely amusing that someone who claims to live in such a paradise (at least as you proclaim), really does nothing but just complain. You really continue to demonstrate how much of a miserable little wretch you actually are.
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dang Com
For the sake of everyone reading, please don’t stop.
I’d upvote None if I thought it could possibly be Hynd..
not Hynd
How many working eye balls do you have?
Glad you aren’t tapping out—you amuse me.
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Think I’ll stick to Ray Banz.
6.2 score comment