www.montereycountynow.com JANUARY 1-7, 2026 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 11 For 20-plus years, every Sunday morning at 11:15am, an informal ocean swimming group called the Kelp Krawlers has gathered at Lovers Point in Pacific Grove to get in the water. The swim took a tragic turn on Sunday, Dec. 21 when 16 swimmers went out and only 15 returned. While swimming around the point, group co-founder Erica Fox had a fatal encounter with a shark. The next Sunday, Dec. 28, the group met as scheduled. But instead of swimming, Kelp Krawlers and their friends walked parallel to a popular swim route, to a destination known as “near rock” in Otter Cove. (A disclosure: This reporter is also a member of the Kelp Krawlers.) The walk was followed by remarks, including many remembering Fox’s competitive spirit and for encouraging them to train for races. Her husband (and fellow Kelp Krawler and triathlete) Jean-François Vanreusel said when they met, he said he could barely swim—his style was “European survival swim,” which he learned in his upbringing in Belgium. Fox encouraged him to get a coach, and he did. But still, she was always faster. “I would ask, ‘How did you get so fast?’ She’d say, ‘I’m a fish, I don’t know.’” Since they met 30 years ago—at a Halloween party in 1995, when he was a student at the Naval Postgraduate School, she at Middlebury Institute of International Studies—they have been partners and competitors athletically, Vanreusel said. “In our relationship it was not necessarily competing against each other—it was about reaching your full potential as a human being.” The walk and gathering on Dec. 28 took place one week after Fox died, and one day after officials located her remains along the shore just south of Davenport on Saturday, Dec. 27. The Santa Cruz County SheriffCoroner’s Office continues investigating, meaning no cause of death has yet been officially determined. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife will conduct a forensic analysis, then Fox’s wetsuit will go to the Shark Lab at CSU Long Beach for a bite mark analysis, where Professor Chris Lowe and his team will attempt to determine what happened. But, Lowe cautions, there may still be unanswered questions. “When sharks bite people it’s extremely rare, and when they do, the question is why—and frankly we don’t have good answers for that,” he says. (There is no explanation for three shark-human interactions near Lovers Point area in 2022, he adds.) The Shark Lab has conducted extensive analysis on juvenile white sharks in Southern California. “They are swimming around people every single day,” Lowe says, noting there is no correlation between higher shark populations and humans being bitten. Part of Lowe’s research has focused on understanding humans’ fear of sharks. “People say, ‘I don’t think I should ever go back in the water.’ I say, ‘Why wouldn’t you? I am sure you know people in their life who have been killed in car accidents, and you still get back in the car.’ I think it’s a matter of perspective.” Into the Deep After the body of Kelp Krawlers co-founder Erica Fox is recovered, a community grieves. By Sara Rubin Kelp Krawlers at Buoy 46240, a half-mile from Lovers Point where the water is 58 feet deep. Swimmers from right include co-leaders Chris Villanueva and Erica Fox. “She was our matriarch,” Villanueva says. NEWS “I would ask, ‘How’d you get so fast?’ She’d say, ‘I’m a fish.’” COURTESY CHRIS VILLANUEVA
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