Spencer Weiner / AP Photo
Lucas Ransom was surfing Friday morning about 50 to 100 yards offshore at Surf Beach, which is in Vandenburg Air Force Base, north of Santa Barbara, California, when, according to witnesses, a shark emerged from the waves, pulled him under, and bit off his leg. Ransom was soon pronounced dead from the attack. Since the water was murky due to recent storm weather, Ransom could have been confused for prey. “That would be like you and I trying to see out of our windshield in our car in a heavy fog, and a young man in a boogie board could have replicated or represented a seal or sea lion to this shark,” shark expert Ralph Collier told ABC Los Angeles station KABC-TV. Officials have so far failed to identify exactly what type of shark killed Ransom, but witnesses have described it as being somewhere between 14 and 20 feet long.