[KHTS] – A Santa Clarita Valley man helped save the swimmer who was bitten by a shark off the coast of Manhattan Beach on Saturday.
Around 9:30 a.m., a 7-foot juvenile shark bit the Steven Robles, 40, near a buoy a couple hundred yards away from the pier, officials said.
Casey Fenwick, 31, of Stevenson Ranch, was surfing near the Manhattan Pier when he heard Robles screaming.
“We tried to flag down a lifeguard and I was already halfway out there. A paddleboarder showed up right before I did,” said Fenwick. “Two swimmers stopped and kept the man afloat. When I got out there, I just saw a lot of blood. I didn’t actually see the bite till I got to shore.”
The two swimmers, the paddleboarder and Fenwick put the injured Robles onto the paddle board and pushed him to shore, he said.
“As soon as I got there, I saw the shark was 5 feet away from us,” said Fenwick. “Looking back on that, it was kind of like, I didn’t even really put the two together, I was just concerned about getting the guy help and getting out of the water. It’s now kind of hitting me that this could have been a bad deal.”
The shark tried to bite through the fishing line that he was hooked on and ended up biting the swimmer under his arm, according to NBC News reports.
“It wasn’t a full-size bite,” said Fire Capt. Tracy Lizotte. “It didn’t seem to be a large bite.”
Some witnesses believe a group of fisherman angered the shark when they caught it on a hook while fishing off of the pier.
“A fisherman who was with the group that hooked the shark said they were looking to catch and release bat rays and tiger sharks,” according to NBC News. “He said they kept the shark on the fishing line because they did not want to release it near people in the water.”
Officials closed the beach for hours and are not planning to reopen it for fishing until Tuesday.
Fenwick has been surfing since he was about 10 years old and this is not the first time he has saved a life.
“My father was diagnosed with leukemia and they went thru the whole process of trying to find a donor,” said Fenwick. “There were two guys in Greece that were close to a match but it didn’t work out with them.”
About 10 years ago, Fenwick, who was a match to his father, went through the process of donating bone marrow.
“They took the marrow from my hips and they took a total of 1600cc from my hips, and they could only take a couple of cubic centimeters at a time,” said Fenwick. “There were a hundred holes in my hips. They put the bone marrow in my dad’s i.v. and he was pretty much back to new.”
Fenwick would be unconscious for about four hours during the process.
“it’s not a fun or comfortable process. It was the worst muscle cramps in my entire life,” Fenwick said. “Something like that, I didn’t think about anything else but trying to help my dad.”
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14 Comments
That’s amazing so glad that he wasnt hurt as well and the guy rescued is going to survive :-)
Noelia Sainz yup. Manhattan
Sorry it happened to him but it is not news worthy. He went into his territory and the shark did what was natural to him. If you don’t want a ‘nice’ swimming experience, go to pool.
I’m tired of reading articles about animals hurting people, stay out of their territory! They have just as much right to defend their home as we do. You take the chance, you deal with the consequences.
Good job local dude!!! I keep reading these articles to find out where on the mans body was he bit, anybody know???
I believe it was his under arm. He was treated and released after 8 hours at UCLA med
The news showed a cast on his arm and bites on the chest/stomach area.
Thank you ladies!
Nice job Casey Fenwick!!
How brave! God bless this man, there are so few people that would do the things he’s done!
Santa Claritians are the Best :)
The guy was swimming with a bunch of people and the only reason he got bit was the shark was hooked on a fisherman’s line and trying to get away when the fishing line got caught up in the swimmer and there was the shark with nowhere to go but bite him- wrong place wrong time
How brave! Santa clarita rock the man was okay from the shark
There’s a reason it’s called “Awesometown”
He was bit in the rib cage but was awake &breathing on his own when taken to the hospital…