Maria Korcsmaros, shark bite survivor, creates race to save sharks

Maria Korcsmaros has been obsessed with sharks since that fateful day at sea when she was attacked by a great white while swimming the coast of Corona Del Mar in 2016.

The Corona resident wants to know what they are doing, and where they are going. She can’t get enough of nature shows explaining how they live. She has an entire mental library of random facts about their hunting tactics.

And, despite being the target of an estimated 10-foot shark, she wants to save them.

Korcsmaros is organizing an event called “Run 4 Sharks & Ocean Protection” at the Newport Dunes on Nov. 18, a way for the athlete to combine her love of running with her newfound passion to save sharks from human destruction.

“We need to protect the ocean, we need to learn how to coexist with nature,” she said.

An athlete’s survival

Korcsmaros started running when she was 18 and living in her native Canada, following in her father’s footsteps as a marathoner.

By the late 1990s she was a triathlon regular, competing in events that mix swimming, cycling and running. She loved the social side of the sport, the competition and getting in touch with nature.

Her favorite spot for swim training was Corona del Mar, which is why she was in the water that fateful day more than two years ago.

Korcsmaros was saved only because lifeguards training nearby quickly plucked her bloody body from the ocean.

Her injuries were near fatal. The shark’s sharp teeth inflicted wounds from her pelvis and upper torso, up around her shoulder, to her back and buttocks. Her skin was pinched back together with 161 staples. She also received a punctured lung and several cracked ribs, which still cause her pain to this day.

But the athlete and fitness instructor, who teaches classes in Temescal Valley, the Trilogy at Glen Ivy retirement community and the city of Corona, did what she knows how to do best — exercise to become stronger.

Her favorite slogan to her students: Suck it up, buttercup.

Within weeks of her attack, she was back to training, helping her students — and herself — push through pain.

A shark community

Since Korcsmaros had her shark encounter, she’s met plenty of people who have helped her along the journey to healing.

There were the emergency responders, as well as the doctors at Orange County Global Medical, a group that has stepped up as a major sponsor of the upcoming event.

“I think it’s great that they are able to come out and support this,” she said. “My goal, and their goal, is to work as a team and show other victims of trauma … we can recover and be more powerful than we were before.”

At the recent launch of Clever Buoy, a sonar shark tracking system that will give real-time alerts to lifeguards, Korcsmaros made an appearance to support the two-month pilot project.

She hopes the run will raise awareness about the critical condition of the ocean, while giving the opportunity for people to collaborate and brainstorm on how to co-exist with nature.

The run will benefit Shark Stewards, a conservation group that has a goal of stopping the slaughter for shark fin soup, a delicacy in some countries.

As she learned more about sharks, she became more educated about their demise. She’s teamed up regularly with Shark Steward founder David McGuire at talks and appearances.

“The universe has brought us all together,” she said. “We need to protect the ocean, we need to learn how to coexist with nature.”

The self-proclaimed “nature nut” said she respects what McGuire stands for and wants to do her part to help.

“Animals are dying, shark-fin trade is a huge thing where we are randomly killing sharks for a rich man’s soup,” she said.

McGuire said Korcsmaros  isn’t the first shark victim that has turned advocate, calling her an “extraordinary woman who has been fun to get to know as a friend.”

“It’s funny how things bring people together – something good can come out of crisis,” he said. “As a conservationist who deals with a lot of negative energy, it’s refreshing to be around someone who has the most credible reason to fear sharks, but here she wants to protect them and raise awareness.”

With the increase in sightings in recent years in Southern California, as shark populations surge due to decades-long protections, now is the time to get all the people who want to learn more about sharks together — and that’s what she hope the run will do, she said.

“It’s mostly to raise awareness. Do you like sharks, do you like nature, do you surf, scuba dive, fish? Are oceans important to you?” she asked. “If there’s no sharks, no marine creatures, no great barrier reef, the planet will suffer because of it.”

‘Knowledge is power’

Before the attack, Korcsmaros knew there were sharks in the ocean, but didn’t know where they were, or how they fed. She didn’t know about the 50 different species of sharks, from the massive whale sharks that are gentle giants, to the cookie-cutter sharks that make circular bites, she said.

And using information from experts like Shark Lab director Chris Lowe and his graduate students at California State University, Long Beach can help ocean-users make better decisions.

Maybe swimmers and surfers should stay away from “hot spots,” where groups of sharks like to gather, she said. Or they can learn how to get away from a shark if attacked, the way swimmer Leeanne Ericson did two years ago near San Onofre State Beach, when she grabbed the shark’s eye after it pulled her underwater .

“You have to be knowledgeable,” she said. “Knowledge is power – if you have the knowledge and you use it, you’re more likely to be in a better situation.”

Korcsmaros and McGuire will be at Beach Cities Scuba in Newport Beach at 6 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 9 to talk about the run and other shark stories.

The race “Run 4 Sharks & Ocean Protection” will be held on Sunday, Nov. 18 at Newport Dunes, and will include a 5K and a 1-mile kid’s race.

Discounted race registration ends Sunday, Nov. 4, and general race registration ends Wed., Nov. 14. Participants will be capped at 500.

All the proceeds will go to Shark Stewards. For more information and to register, go to run4sharks.org