_{Chris was surprisingly chill about the whole thing.}

A solicitor was forced to abandon one of the world’s toughest open water swims after he was attacked by a shark.

Chris Murray, a personal injury lawyer in Clyde & Co's Manchester office, was attempting to swim the Catalina Channel, a 20 mile stretch of water between Catalina Island and the Los Angeles shore.

The notorious passage is known for its strong currents and cold water, and swimmers begin the 14 hour challenge after nightfall to avoid blustery afternoon winds.

54-year-old Murray had been swimming for nearly three hours when, at around 1.30am, he was chomped on his left hand in the pitch black by a juvenile great white shark.

"I shook it off," Murray said. "And then, I felt another attack and a clamp on my right foot."

“The way sharks tend to grab their prey is they’ll latch on and then they’ll shake, so I had to kick it off with my other foot.”

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Murray was being escorted by a dive boat, the Bottom Scratcher, whose crew stopped scratching their bottoms when they saw their charge fighting off the 1-metre long shark. 

“They put the big searchlight from the top of the boat on to the water and they could see it was coming again for another bite, so I was told to get out”, said Murray.

As the shark raced in for a third time, the lawyer clambered up onto the boat.

After the crew bandaged his wounds he was transferred to hospital on a Los Angeles Fire Department vessel, where he received 20 stitches in his hand and more extensive treatment for his foot.

_{Revealing a shark scar is an unbeatable move in contract negotiations.}

"I didn't feel pain, just adrenaline," Murray said of the attack. "I didn't even feel shocked. I felt annoyed."

The Clyde & Co partner joins an exclusive club: there have only been a dozen documented shark bites in the LA region since 1950.

He had been hoping to complete the ‘triple crown of open-water swimming’, which also includes a 28.5 mile swim around Manhattan.

“I spent six months training every day, sometimes twice a day, and it’s very expensive”, he said.

But when he was bitten, “I knew that was going to spoil it.”

Murray is currently on crutches, but expects to make a full recovery in a few weeks. “I was very lucky it didn’t hit any artery or tendons,” he said. “It was over very quickly.”

Despite the shark stopping play, Murray still raised over £2,600 for UNICEF from sponsorship. The experienced long-distance swimmer previously swam the English Channel, and in 2023 he raised £3,800 for children in Ukraine when he swam from Spain to Morocco across the Strait of Gibraltar.

_{Murray on a shark-free swim to Morocco.}

“Swims of this nature always carry risks, but there had never been a recorded shark attack during this particular challenge”, he said.

“I’m incredibly grateful the encounter was with a curious juvenile rather than a fully grown adult. The experience has given me a deeper appreciation for those who suffer injury, and I’m truly thankful for the support I received throughout.”

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