Roll on Friday
A solicitor was forced to abandon one of the world’s toughest open water swims after he was attacked by a shark.
Chris Murray, a personal injury lawyer in Clyde & Co‘s Manchester office, was attempting to swim the Catalina Channel, a 20 mile stretch of water between Catalina Island and the Los Angeles shore.
The notorious passage is known for its strong currents and cold water, and swimmers begin the 14 hour challenge after nightfall to avoid blustery afternoon winds.
54-year-old Murray had been swimming for nearly three hours when, at around 1.30am, he was chomped on his left hand in the pitch black by a juvenile great white shark.
“I shook it off,” Murray said. “And then, I felt another attack and a clamp on my right foot.”
“The way sharks tend to grab their prey is they’ll latch on and then they’ll shake, so I had to kick it off with my other foot.”
Murray was being escorted by a dive boat, the Bottom Scratcher, whose crew stopped scratching their bottoms when they saw their charge fighting off the 1-metre long shark.
“They put the big searchlight from the top of the boat on to the water and they could see it was coming again for another bite, so I was told to get out”, said Murray.
As the shark raced in for a third time, the lawyer clambered up onto the boat.
After the crew bandaged his wounds he was transferred to hospital on a Los Angeles Fire Department vessel, where he received 20 stitches in his hand and more extensive treatment for his foot.
https://www.rollonfriday.com/news-content/clyde-co-partner-attacked-shark
