Great White Foils Marathon Swimmer Near His Goal

A great white shark thwarted a Northern California man's quest to become the first person to swim from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Farallon Islands. Corte Madera marathon swimmer Simon Dominguez was trying to swim about 28 miles when his teen daughter, in a support boat, spotted the great white as he was about 3 miles from his goal, reports KPIX-TV. After 18 hours in the frigid ocean, he reluctantly climbed into his support boat as the 12-to-15-foot shark circled it.

Out of the water, the 49-year-old, blood streaming down his chest from chafed skin around his neck, said he was disappointed that he didn't finish the swim. "It was hard, but a shark is a shark," Dominguez said. Four swimmers have swum from the Farallon Islands to San Francisco, but Dominguez would have been the first to make the trip in the other direction. (More great white shark stories.)