ACAPULCO, Mexico -- Authorities are using baited hooks to catch sharks near a Mexican beach where a San Francisco surfer was killed in an attack.

Mexico's Navy and maritime authorities say they have strung about 200 yards of lines with baited hooks near the beach in an attempt to catch sharks that may be using the area as a feeding ground.

Twenty-four-year-old Adrian Ruiz bled to death after being bitten on the thigh Monday while surfing off Troncones beach west of Acapulco about 45 minutes west by car from the beach resort of Ixtapa.

A statement the Guerrero state Public Safety Department said the victim suffered wounds "that reached from the hip to the knee, exposing the femur."

Ruiz was still alive when he was brought back to the beach. While an ambulance was called, it took so long to reach Troncones -- a relatively isolated, undeveloped beach -- that a bystander took the victim to a local naval hospital in his car.

Ruiz, however, died a few minutes after reaching the hospital "due to a loss of blood," according to the statement.

Friends in San Francisco remembered Ruiz as an avid surfer who frequently planned his vacations around surfing. He had only recently arrived in Mexico for a surfing junket with six friends when the attack happened Monday.

Officials say emergency personnel are warning beach-goers about sharks' presence near the largely undeveloped oceanfront.

It's not clear what species was involved in Monday's attack, but Navy Commander Arturo Bernal says helicopter overflights had sighted two great white sharks nearby.