Cameron A. Whiting

Cameron A. Whiting helped rescue Caleb Adams from a shark attack, Del Mar, California, June 2, 2024. Adams, 46, was finishing an open-water swim with a group in the Pacific Ocean at a point about 450 feet from shore when a juvenile great white shark, later determined to be approximately 9 feet long and about 550 pounds, attacked him. During the attack, Adams sustained severe lacerations to his chest and torso, lacerations and puncture wounds on his right thigh, as well as lacerations on his left hand from attempting to fend off the shark. Adams and a nearby witness screamed out for help. Another member of Adams’s swim group, a 51-year-old financial advisor, had also just completed an open-water swim and was bodysurfing about halfway between Adams and the shore. Near him was Whiting, 31, vice president of a real estate company, who had also just completed the swim and was bodysurfing. Whiting and the financial advisor both heard the screams stating “Shark!” and “Help!” They looked at each other, and the financial advisor immediately swam toward the attack scene. Whiting turned toward shore to ensure that someone there was calling for backup before shortly following the financial advisor toward Adams. The financial advisor approached as Adams was attempting to swim towards him and stated that he had just been bit by a shark. The financial advisor reached for Adams, turned him on his back, and put his right arm under Adams’s right armpit and across his chest to the left side of his neck, pulling Adams on top of his own chest. With Adams in his right arm, the financial advisor swam in a backstroke style toward shore using his left arm and both legs. Whiting arrived seconds later, when a male surfer also approached and offered his surfboard for them to use. Whiting and the financial advisor together moved Adams atop the board in a prone position. Whiting then lay atop Adams’s lower body and kicked his legs in the water to propel the board toward shore. The financial advisor swam next to them with a hand on the board, steadying it. Once in waist-deep water, Whiting grabbed one of Adams’s arms and wrapped it around his neck while the financial advisor grabbed the other arm and wrapped it around his neck. Whiting and the financial advisor helped Adams to shore and up the beach, where they laid him in the back of a lifeguard truck that had just arrived shortly before paramedics. Adams, who suffered significant blood loss, underwent emergency surgery to repair his wounds and was hospitalized three days. He has now physically recovered. Whiting was not injured.