PACIFIC GROVE, California: A 55-year-old woman whose body was found days after she had gone missing in a shark last week off the Northern California coast was identified as an open ocean swimmer from Pebble Beach.

Authorities recovered Erica Fox's body over the weekend from the ocean south of Davenport Beach in Santa Cruz County, the sheriff's office stated.

Fox had been missing since going on a swim on December 21 in Monterey Bay with her husband and other members of the Kelp Krawlers, an open-water swimming club she co-founded.

"She didn't want to live in fear," her husband, Jean-Francois Vanreusel, told the Mercury News during a vigil Sunday, a day after her body was found. "She lived her life fully."

Vanreuse, who led a vigil for his wife of 30 years, said she had been wearing her white Garmin watch and still had a "shark band" attached to her ankle. It is an electromagnetic device meant to deter sharks.

He said he did not witness the attack, but told the Mercury News that two people on shore had seen it. He added that she had taught him how to swim and that, like her, he had grown to love the ocean.

Experts say shark attacks are extremely rare, occurring less often than lightning strikes or bear attacks.

According to the Mercury News, Fox's death was the second fatal shark attack at Lovers Point in 73 years, the first involving a 17-year-old boy in December 1952.

Members of her swimming club were said to be shaken, as it was the second shark attack involving one of their members. In 2022, fellow swimmer Steve Bruemmer was attacked by a great white shark and seriously injured.

The newspaper reported that after Bruemmer's attack, many swimmers in the group began wearing electromagnetic "Sharkbanz" like the one Fox wore, even though most knew the devices did not offer adequate protection against an attack from below.

Bruemmer, who has said he would never swim in the ocean again, attended the vigil over the weekend using walking sticks. He told the crowd that a shark had also bitten him and said the injuries had not been physically painful. He said he believed that in her final moments, Fox was not suffering pain, and hoped that could bring some comfort to others.