PORTLAND, Ore.
(AP) -- A shark bit a boogie boarder on the left ankle, tearing flesh down to the bone, hospital officials said.
Garry Turner, 24 of Portland swam back to the beach Saturday and was taken to Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital in Lincoln City, and then sent by ambulance to Portland, said hospital spokesman Brandon Ford.
Turner was listed in fair condition Sunday.
He and two friends were boogie boarding and surfing off Cape Kiwanda near Pacific City. Turner said the three were waiting for waves about 200 feet from the coast when the shark attacked.
"I was sitting on my boogie board and talking when something grabbed my foot and tried to pull it straight down," Turner said from his hospital bed.
Turner said he didn't immediately realize he had been bitten. Wearing fins, his first reaction was to free his foot by kicking hard and thrusting himself back on the board.
But the shark circled back, and it was then that the three realized what had happened.
"My friend yelled, 'Shark. Shark"' Turner said. "I saw the gills just as it was dropping back in the water."
The three then paddled vigorously toward the shore and the shark apparently lost interest.
Witnesses told emergency workers that the shark was about eight-feet long and seemed to lunge out of the water. Area fishermen said it was likely a blue or a sand shark, among the most common types in that part of the Pacific Ocean.
Turner will likely make a full recovery because the bite didn't sever tendons, hospital officials said.
Ford said the last time a shark bite victim had come to his hospital was six years ago, when a surfer was bitten on the thigh. It was believed a great white was involved in that attack. That person made a full recovery, he said.
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June 10 2002
JENSEN BEACH -- A
10-year-old Port St. Lucie boy was in stable condition Sunday night
after being attacked by a shark as he swam with a group of children 30
yards off the south end of the public beach.
The attack, among the first in Florida this spring, occurred hours
earlier on a sunny afternoon when Jensen Beach was filled with
sunbathers and swimmers. Yellow flags were posted as 2-foot seas came
ashore. Some swimmers said bait fish could be seen in the water.
Lifestar emergency
services flew Corey Brooks, who was suffering reportedly from a 12- to
14-inch gash in his right calf, to St. Mary's Medical Center in West
Palm Beach. Brooks underwent surgery Sunday evening at St. Mary's,
according to his mother, Tammie Brooks of Port St. Lucie.
Reportedly, her son had more than 100 stitches in his leg and was
resting in the facility's intensive care unit after surgery.
Tammie Brooks said Corey had gone to the beach with family friends when
she received the "bad news he was bit by a shark. They told me he was
airlifted here," she said, standing outside of St. Mary's.
She said she was told her son had been playing in waist-deep water and
thought one of his friends was pulling on his leg underwater. Then he
saw a shark had bitten him and he ran crying for help.
A lifeguard supervisor said guards were unable to forewarn swimmers
because the attack occurred too far down the beach from the posted
lifeguard stations to monitor the shark siting. Lifeguards were informed
of the attack about 1 p.m., when a guard was told the boy was bitten as
he swam in the surf with more than 20 other children.
Lifeguards then quickly called everyone onto the beach from the water
and stabilized the boy.
Joe Kostygan, chief lifeguard for Martin County, said the attack
occurred "quite a way down the beach" from a guard station. "It was out
of the guarded area at the extreme end of the public beach."
He said, "It's been a heck of while at least 10 or 12 years" since he
could remember another attack there. The incident was probably "a chance
encounter."
"Shark attacks are such a chance encounter you could be looking right at
it," and not see it, Kostygan said. Most swimmers were packed pretty
close to shore. "They would have noticed him if he was out further," he
said of Corey.
Corey was conscious and "pretty calm" but in pain, said Martin County
Fire Rescue firefighter/paramedic T.J. Guzzi and fire medic Doug Young.
"He had a pretty significant bite, it did appear serious. He was stable,
but we took him to St. Mary's just to make sure," Young said. Lifeguards
and fire officials "did a great job," he said. "The scene was pretty
controlled."
The Lifestar helicopter landed on A1A, adjacent to the beach area, at
1:15 p.m.
The youth was "pretty hysterical" when it first happened, said one
unidentified sunbather on the beach, who witnessed the event.
After the incident, the observer said he and his friends decided to stay
on the beach, but were reluctant to go in the water. Other swimmers,
went back into the water 30 minutes later.
On May 31, a shark bit the left foot of a teen swimmer near St. George
Island off the Panhandle in the Gulf of Mexico.
The 16-year-old boy from Birmingham, Ala., underwent three hours of
surgery and was recovering well, reports stated. The teen, who was
swimming with his younger brother, was about 200 feet from shore when
the shark, thought to be 3 feet long, attacked. People were reportedly
fishing and feeding gulls near the boys at the time of the attack.
______________________________________
April 30, 2002
ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) -- A shark dragged a man from his friend's arms and killed him Tuesday off Australia's southern coast, officials said.
The victim, a 23-year-old professional diver, was diving for scallops from an anchored boat with a friend when he was attacked by the shark, South Australia Ambulance spokesman Lee Francis said.
The friend tried to pull the victim onto the boat but the shark pulled the man into the water, Francis said. The victim's name was not released.
The victim's friend was not hurt, but was taken to a hospital to be treated for shock.
"I understand he (the victim) came to the surface. There was a cry for help," Francis said. "But as the other person tried to get him on board, the shark grabbed him and pulled him underneath."
Francis said the men's boat was anchored off the small South Australian fishing port of Smoky Bay, about 500 kilometers (310 miles) northwest of the state capital Adelaide, when the attack happened around noon.
Smoky Bay is known as haunt of the great white shark.
However, officials could not confirm what kind of shark was involved in Tuesday's attack.
It was the fifth fatal shark attack in South Australian waters in the past four
| Shark Expert
Seriously Injured by Shark in Bahamas
Fri Apr 12, 9:26 AM ET MIAMI (Reuters) - A shark expert known for unusual research methods and "pushing the envelope" in his study of the feared marine predator's behavior was badly bitten by a shark in the Bahamas, colleagues said on Thursday.
Dr. Erich Ritter, chief scientist for the Princeton, New Jersey-based Global Shark Attack File, was bitten in the calf by what was believed to be a 350-pound (159-kg) bull shark during filming of a Discovery (news - web sites) Channel program off Walker's Cay, Bahamas, on Tuesday. "It was a serious injury," said Marie Levine, executive director of the Shark Research Institute in Princeton. "He's going to be in the hospital for four or five more weeks." A series of particularly gruesome shark attacks, including one where an 8-year-old boy lost an arm to a bull shark in Florida, earned international media attention last summer, although the year turned out to be an average one with 76 attacks recorded worldwide. Experts say shark attacks are very rare and may be increasing only because more people are using the oceans for recreation. Ritter, 43, was bitten in murky, waist-deep water as he worked with lemon, black-tip and bull sharks for the television program, Levine said. It appears the bull-shark was chasing a remora, a smaller fish, and bit Ritter by accident. "There was food in the water about 15 yards (14 meters) from Erich. A bull shark closed on the remora but in the low visibility bit Erich instead," she said. The shark's teeth went to the bone and Ritter was rushed to a hospital in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he underwent an arterial graft and possibly a skin graft on the calf wound, she said. "They were really pushing the envelope," Levine said. "This is one of those things that can happen when you're working with big animals and it was an accident." But Dr. Sam Gruber, a University of Miami shark expert who worked with Ritter in the 1990s, said Ritter's methods were not accepted by the scientific community and called him "an accident waiting to happen." "He has been getting more and more fearless, or some would say bold. This method is basically to titillate TV cameras," Gruber said. "He wants to impress people that he can control these sharks and they will never bite him." Gruber said Ritter believed his study of the marine predators had made him immune to shark bites and called his methods damaging to those trying to do "legitimate" research on sharks. "He believes he can read the minds of sharks and that he knows everything about shark behavior so he can predict what they are going to do," Gruber said. "Those predictions will never be accurate enough to say 'this is what will happen 100 percent of the time.'"
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Relentless shark attacks Deerfield Beach snorkeler
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March 16 2002 ,Florida
A snorkeler hunting for sand dollars 300 yards off Deerfield Beach
Friday morning became the prey of a 3-foot nurse shark.
Robert Land, 39, of Deerfield Beach, said he was swimming above a school of fish, when the shark lunged forward and clamped onto his left arm. "I had to grab him and make my way up top to get more air," Land said. He said he spent about five minutes struggling in the water, fighting with the shark while trying to breathe, when nearby boaters noticed his distress and came over to help. "If they weren't there, I don't think you'd be talking to me right now," Land said Friday afternoon. But even when he was safely on the boat's deck, Land was hardly out of harm's way. The persistent shark refused to release its grip, so the boaters slit its belly -- to no avail. "It was trying to rip my arm. Scary," Land said. With the shark still dangling from Land's arm, the boaters raced to the nearby docks at the Boca Raton Beach Club, 900 S. Ocean Blvd., where Boca Raton Fire-Rescue workers were waiting. There, paramedics pried the shark's jaws open with wood planks and pieces of metal, Land said. They gave Land nitrous oxide to ease the pain, but he said he never lost consciousness. Land was taken to Boca Raton Community Hospital, where he was treated and released, said hospital spokeswoman Betsy Whisman. He said his arm is riddled with teeth marks, and now his biggest concern is infection. A Philadelphia transplant who has been snorkeling for 10 months, Land said he's not going to let a little shark bite keep him out of the water. But he learned one important lesson: "They said I should always have a buddy with me." |
FEB.27.2002
Turks and Caicos Islands
A retired British police officer is recovering in the Caribbean after a horrific ordeal in which at least one of his colleagues was killed by sharks.
Phil Harding, a former detective superintendent, was on the Turks and Caicos Islands as part of the government's initiative to help train local detectives, when a freak wave capsized their fishing boat.
He and his colleague clung desperately to the over-turned hull of the boat and four times he was washed off by the force of the waves.
Then they watched in horror as sharks circled around them.
"I couldn't grip the bottom of the boat but luckily my colleague gave me the courage to hang on," he told BBC Radio Five Live.
"We kept losing hope that we would be rescued and didn't think we could make it.
Engine trouble
"In the night we could see sharks swimming around the boat. It was a nightmare."
Mr Harding, from Derby, and his colleague, a sergeant with the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police, were eventually rescued by a Cuban tug boat.
They were suffering from sunburn and dehydration.
One of their fellow fishermen died after being attacked by sharks, while another is missing.
The ordeal began on Saturday when Mr Harding and three colleagues from the local force set out on the fishing trip.
Not long after they left, the motor stopped working and their small boat began to take on water.
A short time later it capsized, leaving the men clinging to the upturned hull.
Two of the officers decided to try to swim ashore, leaving Mr Harding and another man behind.
For more than 30 hours, they stayed in the water drifting in and out of consciousness.
'Lucky to be alive'
Doctors on the Turks and Caicos Islands say Mr Harding is extremely lucky to be alive.
Mr Harding said: "I was just so grateful that we made it. I'm not a strong swimmer so I'm extremely relieved.
"You wouldn't believe the thoughts that were going through your head when you think you are not going to make it - thinking of my wife and family and my finances, making sure they would be looked after.
"Now my thoughts are with my friends' families. They tried to swim and didn't make it."
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Feb.07.20002
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SYDNEY, Australia
-- A 35-year-old man has had a harrowing encounter with a shark while paddling a kayak in the habor waters just a few kilometers west of downtown Sydney. The man was in in his kayak Thursday evening near the Cabarita Marina in the Parramatta River when the shark struck. He was thrown into the water by the impact and then hit in the chest by the shark, which then began circling him as he swam for help. The man was able to climb onto a nearby navigational buoy and was rescued by a passing fishing boat. Water Police examining the kayak found a large bite mark and part of a tooth imbedded in the stern. The man suffered bruising and minor lacerations in the attack, police said. |
Teenager attacked in the dark by shark
January 04 2002 South Africa
Sixteen-year-old Adrian Sheik kicked and punched as a shark gnawed at his
right leg in the early hours of Friday morning.
Sheik and a group of friends were fishing at 2am in the shallow water on
the sand banks of the Royal Natal Yacht Club in Durban Harbour when he was
attacked by what was believed to be a Zambezi shark.
Partially freeing himself, he then stabbed the shark with his fishing rod,
before finally escaping and swimming towards the harbour's edge.
He was then rushed to Durban's Addington Hospital, where he is
recuperating after his leg was amputated on Friday afternoon.
The horror attack is the second shark attack in KwaZulu-Natal waters in
less than a week and the Natal Sharks Board has warned beachgoers to stay
out of the water at night.
Recounting the incident, Sheik's best friend, Kevin Moonsamy - who was
with him - said the actual attack was quick, but helping his friend swim
back to land took about half an hour.
When they approached the shore, another fisherman, Jack Potgieter, came to
the boys' assistance. "I heard screaming and turned to see what was
happening," Potgieter said. He quickly put a towel around Sheik's leg and
helped drag him to the shore. The paramedics were called soon afterward.
"We believe it to be quite a large shark," said Sharks Board biologist
Sheldon Dudley.
This is the first reported shark attack inside the harbour since the
Sharks Board started keeping records of attacks in the 1940s.
"This is the first attack inside Durban harbour, but we do know of such
attacks in other parts of the world," added Dudley.
There are no shark nets inside the harbour. There have been rare sightings
of sharks in the harbour, but none that close to the moored yachts and the
fishermen.
Dudley said only after further investigation would they be certain what
type of shark the attacker was, but early implications are that it was a
Zambezi shark.
"The Zambezi shark is the only one that can live in both salt and fresh
water and the harbour has both," said Dudley. This shark is also known to
swim upriver and can get close to shore. Sheik was attacked in knee-deep
water.
Speaking to The Independent on Saturday, Sheik's mother, Anita Sheik, said
she was told of the incident about 4am on Friday.
"I thank God my son is alive. He loves fishing and fishes almost every
day," she said.
But she said that on Thursday night he was hesitant about going fishing as
he was feeling ill, and was persuaded to do so by his friend.
"Maybe it was a sign, a sort of premonition," she added. She said her son
is turning 17 next Sunday. He was due to begin a new job on Monday.
"Both me and my husband are unemployed. My son told me before he left that
he was going to support us financially when he started work," she added.
Earlier this week Zululand doctor Michael van Niekerk was bitten while
surfskiing off Mtunzini on New Year's day.
Van Niekerk, 26, was about 1,5km out to sea and was watching the sun
setting as he waited for his friend to catch up to him. As he sat on his
surfski he dangled his legs over the side.
"I felt something bump my leg and heard a big splash. Then I felt
something tugging on my foot," explained Van Niekerk. He managed to
maintain his balance with his paddle and tugged his leg out of the water.
When he pulled it out he saw the large gash and realised what had
happened.Van Niekerk is luckier than Sheik - while his foot was badly
mangled, all major nerves and tendons were intact, enabling doctors to
save his leg.
In his case too, it is only once the bandages are removed that experts
will be able to say what kind of shark attacked him.
"This is the second attack this week, but the public must remember that
both attacks occurred between dusk and dawn - during the sharks' feeding
time. Fishermen, paddlers and swimmers should not to go into the sea at
night," cautioned Dudley
Shark attacks man on surfski
JAN.2.2002 South Africa
Nursing a sore and heavily bandaged foot, a Zululand doctor on
Wednesday recounted his ordeal on a surfski off Mtunzini on New Year's Day
when he was savaged by a shark.
Dr Michael van Niekerk, 26, of Mtunzini, is recovering in the Bay Hospital
in Richards Bay after a shark sank its teeth into his right foot, luckily
missing major nerves and tendons.
Van Niekerk, fellow Ngwelezana Hospital doctor Darryl Wood and former
Ngwelezana doctor Pieter Smith, out from England on holiday, had set off
on their surfskis to paddle from the Mlalazi River mouth to Mtunzini beach
about 6.30pm.
About 1,5km out to sea and with the sun setting, Van Niekerk stopped to
wait for Smith to catch up with him and dropped his legs over the side of
his fibreglass craft.
"I felt something hit my right leg with a big splash. It tugged my foot
but I managed to brace myself with my paddle. I pulled my foot up and saw
a gash on the side."
The young doctor told Wood, who was on a surfski near him, that he had
been bitten and raced towards the shore.
After beaching his craft, he crawled along the sand and waved down a
passing 4x4 bakkie, whose driver wrapped Van Niekerk's injured foot in a
towel and drove him to friends who were waiting for the paddlers on the
main beach.
There they poured water over the wound and wrapped it up again and he was
driven to hospital where he underwent surgery.
He said he expected to be in hospital for the next three days.
Once the bandages are removed, experts may be able to determine what kind
of shark bit him, but already there is speculation that it may have been a
Zambezi shark.
Van Niekerk and his friends said the attack served as a reminder to
surfskiers not to paddle alone or at dusk and not to dangle their legs
over the sides of their boats out at sea.
"It's also a good idea to have a waterproof pouch with emergency
provisions," said one of his hospital visitors.
JAN.2.2002, Hawaii
Snorkeler survives encounter with shark
California musician Tommy Holmes is "ecstatic" to be alive after staring into the jaws of one of the ocean's most feared predators while snorkeling off Maui on New Year's Day.
 |
| Tommy Holmes was attacked by a shark while snorkeling off Maui on New Year's Day. |
The 35-year-old Los Angeles resident, who was snorkeling with his girlfriend, escaped the encounter with six lacerations on his buttocks where the 6- to 7-foot tiger shark nipped him with its razor-sharp teeth before disappearing into the deep.
"He was very lucky, that's for sure," said Randy Honebrink of the state's Shark Task Force. "Usually tigers would be expected to do a little more damage than that."
Honebrink said an average of three to four shark "incidents" occur every year in Hawai'i.
The most recent shark attack occurred last March, when a suspected reef shark bit a bodyboarder's hand at Sandy Beach on O'ahu. In 2000, two nonfatal attacks reported off Maui were blamed on tiger sharks.
Holmes is the first to acknowledge his good fortune in suffering only minor injuries from Tuesday's attack.
"I couldn't feel luckier," he said yesterday from his hospital bed at Maui Memorial Medical Center.
A certified scuba diver, Holmes said he has made more than 100 dives off Southern California and Kaua'i and had never once even seen a shark.
Turtles in area
On Tuesday, the conditions were clear and the ocean calm when Holmes and girlfriend, Monica Boggs, 29, entered the water around 12:30 p.m. at a popular snorkeling spot off Olowalu near Lahaina. They swam out about 100 yards in water that was 40 feet deep.
"We saw a big group of 12 to 15 turtles. It was amazing," Holmes said. "We were just watching them for about 10 minutes when Monica spotted the shark about 25 feet away and grabbed my hand."
Boggs said the shark sped straight toward them with a clear purpose.
"It was swimming right at us at an alarming speed. It didn't look curious — it looked like it knew what it wanted. I thought we were going to die," she said.
Holmes said they popped their heads out of the water and started to back away from the approaching animal.
"I put my mask back in the water to see where he was and he was around four feet away. I saw his open mouth and teeth, and a very big head," he said.
Holmes curled into a ball to protect his limbs, and the shark latched onto his buttocks then quickly released. Before the shark swam off, Holmes managed to punch its snout as it lingered near the surface.
"I saw Tommy fighting a little bit and it scared me to death," Boggs said. "It all happened very fast."
"I'm very grateful we saw it coming. We were kind of able to prepare."
On the frantic swim back to shore, Boggs turned to get a look at Holmes' wounds and saw that his shorts were in tatters and there was blood in the water. It wasn't until they reached the beach that they realized he had escaped serious injury.
Holmes said he didn't feel any pain when the shark bit him, only a stinging sensation as he began to swim back to the beach.
"We were quite happy once we were on the shoreline," he said. "We were both ecstatic. I had all my limbs, and we knew it was in the butt and that we had gotten off easy. I'm a lucky guy."
'It was absolutely terrifying'
Holmes said he received more than 50 stitches to close the half-moon bite wounds. As a singer, songwriter and guitarist for a rock 'n' roll band in L.A., Holmes said he "loves telling stories" in between numbers and was hoping to get more publicity for his music — but this isn't quite the kind of story and publicity he would've preferred.
Although obviously joyful at surviving their shark encounter, both Holmes and Boggs remain shaken by the event.
"It was absolutely terrifying," Boggs said. "You don't feel that kind of feeling, ever. You can never know what it's like unless you go through it.
"I figure if I can take that, then I'm pretty set."
Like Holmes, Boggs enjoys water sports and ocean swimming. Both said the shark attack wouldn't keep them out of the water, although they might stay a little closer to shore.
"I'll be a little bit more aware of how far out I go," Holmes said. "It's not until you get out there that you realize you have to swim back in."
Boggs, a visual arts teacher and professional singer, finds some security in figuring the odds are with them. "How could that happen twice?" she said.
Snorkelers who ventured into the water at Olowalu yesterday also were counting on the rarity of shark attacks. Most, like Joe and Liza Eto of Oakland, Calif., were unaware of Tuesday's incident until they noticed the shark-sighting signs posted at the beach by the state Division of Aquatic Resources. The signs were removed at 11:15 a.m. yesterday after a county lifeguard used a personal watercraft to inspect the snorkeling area.
The Etos, who were snorkeling with their children, Ben, 12, and Georgia, 8, were unperturbed by the threat of an ocean predator.
"We came all this way and we rented all this dang equipment, and we're not going to go in now?" said Liza Eto as she squeezed anti-fog drops into her mask.
Dive instructor Jeff Tanonaka has been taking dive groups off Olowalu for years, and he said he has never had trouble with sharks there. He said he often sees black-tip sharks and other reef sharks, but they generally are not aggressive unless harassed.
Attack happened at midday
Honebrink said Holmes' description of the shark, in particular its large head, leads him to believe it was a tiger shark.
"This is not unusual as far as the types of thing that happen in Hawai'i with shark bites," he said. "Most of the time when people are bitten, it's usually a tiger shark."
In this case, "it doesn't surprise me that there are sharks in an area where there's a bunch of turtles."
While experts warn of a higher shark-attack risk if swimming in dark, murky waters or early or late in the day, Tuesday's incident happened at midday in clear, calm conditions.
"The guy wasn't doing anything wrong," Honebrink said. "What this incident does is remind people that sharks are out there and we have to be careful. It's part of going into the ocean. We're entering their environment, and they're the boss."
Two other shark attacks have been reported off Olowalu in the past 10 years, both occurring a bit north of the spot where Holmes was injured.
On Oct. 18, 2000, Henrietta Musselwhite, 56, of Geyserville, Calif., was bitten on her upper and lower back while snorkeling a half-mile offshore. On Nov. 26, 1991, swimmer Martha Joy Morrell, 41, of Maui, was mauled by a tiger shark. Her death triggered a state-sanctioned shark hunt and the formation of the Shark Task Force.
Honebrink said officials are not ready to declare Olowalu a shark zone, but "we're certainly paying attention to that right now, with three incidents in the past 10 years."
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Great white snacks on rubber
duckie
03oct 2001
A BRISBANE man endured a
30-minute nightmare after a great white shark attacked his inflatable boat
and propelled him across waters just off Moreton Bay.
Matt George, 31, hung on to his damaged rubber duckie and dog paddled 200m
to safety after the 4m predator smashed into the side of the vessel on
Sunday afternoon.
The force of the shark's bite destroyed and sank one half of the boat just off Sovereign Beach at the southern end of Moreton Island, northeast of Brisbane.
"I've seen thresher sharks throw themselves out of the water and do full twists in the air," said Mr George, a sport fisherman from Chelmer in Brisbane's west.
"I've seen sharks herd up pilchards on to the shore and just cut them up . . . but nothing like what this thing did.
"The whole side of my boat exploded and the shark was pushing the boat back in towards the beach. It blew up and that just wrecked my day."
Mr George said many things went through his head, but he had no plan of attack.
"He finished having a bit of a chomp on the boat and kicked his tail up in the air and disappeared, then the boat started sinking and I didn't know what was going to happen next," he said.
"There was no way to know if it was going to come back."
Mr George said that at first he thought it was a tiger shark, but a ranger told him the bite marks were more likely to be from an elderly great white which may have travelled by habit into the area, which once housed a whaling station.
"Every now and then I'd stop and look around, then I'd give myself enough time to have a paddle and enough time for a shark to come in, then I'd have another look," Mr George said.
Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service officers said they spotted Mr George from the island and when he got close used rope to help drag him in.
But Mr George became wedged on a sandbank and had to carry his vessel out. He has deep tissue damage in his back and has been unable to work since the attack.
University of Queensland shark researcher Michael Bennett said little was known about the great white in the "northern extent" of their travels.
But Dr Bennett said there were recent reports of a lone individual prowling the Moreton Bay region.
"The motto is don't go out in your rubber duckie," Dr Bennett said. "I expect it might well have been a great white. There have been anecdotal reports recently of one in the bay."
Shark bites surfer along Volusia County coast
Sep.19..2001 FloridaNEW SMYRNA BEACH -- As Tropical Storm Gabrielle steams toward Bermuda, she leaves in her wake Volusia County's 21st shark bite victim this year.
Blaise Mosler, a 14-year-old surfer from Longwood, was bitten on the left ankle about 3 p.m. Tuesday near the 2800 block of North Atlantic Avenue, just a mile south of Ponce de Leon Inlet.
Beach officials said the murky waters and the high surf caused by the storm passing through over the weekend are the cause for Tuesday's incident.
"It's very typical of the bites we have been seeing in the inlet," said Joe Wooden, deputy chief of the Volusia County Beach Patrol.
Mosler, who was paddling out to the surf break when he was bitten, was treated at the scene for a 1- to 2-inch cut on his right foot, Wooden said. He was not transported to a local hospital and he told officials he would likely go to an emergency facility near his home.
"We are being cautious and are doing flyovers," Wooden said. "We want to see how murky the waters are, how much baitfish there are in the area and the number of sharks."
A 4 p.m. helicopter check by the county's Beach Services department and the Sheriff's Office did not spot any sharks, Wooden said. However, he said people should be aware of the potential for shark encounters because of the large number of bait fish along the shoreline and the inability of the shark to see its prey because of poor water clarity.
In mid-August, the Beach Patrol treated 10 people for shark bites in a 10-day period, creating a media frenzy and prompting the Beach Patrol to keep a stretch of surf just south of the inlet off limits to swimmers and surfers for more than a week.
So far this year, 31 shark bites have been recorded in Florida, 21 in Volusia County, according to George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville. Worldwide, the shark file shows there have been 54 attacks this year, 43 in the United States.
Burgess said the good surf increased the number of surfers in the ocean and, with the water as murky as it is, it was an accident waiting to happen.
"It's a juicy situation for the surfers because of the turbulent waves caused by the storm. But, there is also the regular number of sharks out there," he said Tuesday. "We are seeing the results."
| Victim's
brother fends off shark North Jetty State Park , Fort Pierce area. September 17 2001 Byron Hock insists he's not a hero."The firemen who saved all the people in the twin towers, I would call them heroes," said Byron, 12, from Davie, who has been watching the recovery efforts at the World Trade Center on television. "I was just helping out my brother." So Byron contends, he was just doing what any big brother would do -- smack a shark that had bitten his younger sibling and was coming back for seconds. "Yeah, I was afraid. But I kept my cool," said Byron, a sixth-grader at Indian Ridge Middle School in Davie. "I thought if the shark tried to attack me, I would hit it on the face. I'm 4 foot 6." The attack occurred as Byron and Cory, 6, were surfing the waves kicked up by Tropical Storm Gabrielle with their father, Gerald Hock, and some family friends Saturday afternoon at North Jetty State Park near Fort Pierce. "We're storm chasers; we chase the waves," said Hock, 45, who owns a home inspection company and has been surfing in Florida since he was a teenager. The boys were in knee-deep water riding their boogie boards when Cory fell off and something struck his lower back and buttocks. "It felt like a fish curling around my bottom," Cory said. "It hurt." A 3-foot shark, which Byron thinks was a white tip, slipped by and came back. "My brother kicked him," explained Cory, a first-grader at Fox Trail Elementary School in Davie. "And he said if a shark messed around with his younger brother, which I am, he would scare him away." Byron even was composed enough to tell Cory to walk, not run, out of the water. "It's just logic," said Byron, who has picked up surfing survival tips from his dad, surfing magazines and watching television. "When little fish run, sharks come after them." Hock, who was surfing in deeper water when the shark hit, was horrified when Byron began shouting for him and he saw paramedics gathering on the beach. "You don't know how it feels when you are racing in and you see your boy, lying on the sand," Hock said. Byron may not think he did anything heroic, but his dad disagrees: "I think he deserves a pat on the back." Although Cory had several puncture wounds in his back, buttocks and legs, he was treated on the beach and went home with his family Saturday night, said Capt. Tom Whitley of the St. Lucie County Fire Rescue. Last week, lifeguards at Fort Pierce's Broadwalk beach closed the area to swimmers for two days after sharks were sighted offshore. And a friend of Byron's was bit on the foot while surfing off North Jetty about a year ago. That won't keep the Hocks out of the water. "It's not like sharks are trying to eat you," Byron said. "They just mistake you for a fish." |
09/09/01 Florida
An angler who hooked a shark and hauled it into his boat was bitten on
his legs and hand after they both fell into the water.
The man caught the shark near Florida's Everglades National Park.
He is said to be in a good condition in Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital
on Sunday with bite wounds and lacerations.
The 44-year-old man slipped and fell off the boat with the shark after
spraying himself with insect repellent, say Miami-Dade Fire Rescue.
More than 40 shark attacks have been reported along the Atlantic and Gulf
coasts in recent months, two of them fatal, according to the International
Shark Attack File based at the University of Florida.
The file counts only unprovoked attacks, such as those to swimmers and
surfers.
It does not consider bites suffered by fishermen as shark attacks because
they involve direct handling of the shark.
AVON, North Carolina (AP) -- A shark attacked a married couple wading in the surf Monday, killing the man and leaving his wife in critical condition.
AVON, N.C. -- A 28-year-old Russian visitor was killed and his 23-year-old girlfriend was critically injured Monday after they were attacked by a shark along the Outer Banks.Officials have identified the victim who died as Sergi Zaloukaev from Arlington. He lost his right foot above the ankle, and medical officials are performing an autopsy at Pitt County Memorial Hospital in Greenville.
His friend Natalia Slobonskaya, from Vienna, Va., underwent surgery last night at a Norfolk hospital. She lost her left foot, and rescuers didn't recover it. Her mother has joined her at the hospital.
Authorities on U.S. Coast Guard flights made two aerial searches today of the area along the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Spotters on one flight did see sharks, but the nearest ones to the scene of the attack were about 10 miles away, said Mary Doll of the National Park Service.
Monday's shark attack was the second fatal shark attack in the region over the holiday, coming about 99 miles south of where a 10-year-old boy was fatally attacked Saturday off Sandbridge.
The two fatalities are the only ones reported among 51 shark attacks this year in U.S. waters. There were 53 attacks in the United States last year.
The last reported fatal shark attack in North Carolina waters came in 1957, according to the International Shark Attack File in Gainesville, Fla.
Beaches were open today but officials advised swimmers to be cautious, especially near dusk and dawn when sharks look for food near the shore.
``I don't know if I would use the word 'afraid,''' said David Griffin, director of North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island. '``Respect' is better.''
Slobonskaya was alert and stable but remained in critical condition today, said Sandra Miller, spokeswoman for Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. She was on a ventilator to assist her breathing, said Dr. Jeffrey Riblet, a trauma surgeon at the hospital.
The woman was flown to the trauma center at Sentara Norfolk on Monday by a Dare County helicopter ambulance.
The couple suffered ``multiple dramatic injuries'' to their legs and buttocks, said Dr. Seaborn Blair of the Avon Medical Center.
The man was pronounced dead in Avon shortly after the attack.
Just after 10 p.m., Norfolk General officials said the woman was in critical but stable condition after surgery and was in the intensive care unit. She also had severe injuries to her torso.
``I think, barring any unforeseen complications such as infection, we'll be able to get her on the road to recovery,'' Riblet said late Monday.
``I believe she'll do well in terms of her outcome,'' said Dr. Jon D. Mason, an emergency physician.
``She lost a fair amount of blood,'' Mason said. ``IVs were established quickly so that she never lost consciousness totally. They did a good job in Carolina.
``She has several wounds. . . . blood loss is a concern,'' he said, without elaborating, but ``things are looking good for her.''
Dorothy Toolan, a Dare County spokeswoman, said both victims are Russian citizens. Doll, of the National Park Service, said the couple were boyfriend and girlfriend and were interns in the Washington area.
An employee of the Embassy of the Russian Federation said officials there were unaware of the incident Monday night, but he said officers were being informed.
The pair were swimming about 20 to 40 feet off shore near a sandbar when
they were attacked about 6 p.m., just off the beach at Greenwood Place in
the Askins Creek area of Avon.
Gary Harkin, 33, of Columbus, Ohio, was with his friend Paul Richards and Richards' wife, Carolyn, under a tent on the beach. He said friends of the couple helped them ashore.
``He was still talking when he came out of the water,'' Harkin said. Harkin said he tried to put a tourniquet on the man's leg with his long-sleeve T-shirt. Meanwhile, Carolyn Richards administered CPR.
``I did have a pulse on him twice, but I lost him,'' she said.
Harkin said it appeared that the man had lost a leg and a finger. The woman, he said, lost her left foot and had been bitten on her left hip and left wrist. Both also had injuries in the groin area, he said.
Doll said that when the first official, a Dare County sheriff's deputy, arrived, the man was in full cardiac arrest.
Daniel Roughton, 21, of Avon was surfing near the couple with three other people. He said he next saw the couple on the beach, with someone administering CPR.
``A guy came running down the beach telling everybody to get out of the water,'' Roughton said.
Dare County officials were moving quickly Monday night to determine the extent of the danger posed by sharks in Outer Banks waters. The Dare County Control Group -- a gathering of emergency officials and key department heads normally brought together for hurricanes -- was meeting late Monday.
Sandy Sanderson, director of emergency operations for the county, said aircraft would survey the coastal area today to look for sharks. It was unclear whether beaches would be open today along the Outer Banks.
Relatives of the boy fatally attacked Saturday in Virginia Beach were critical of the decision to keep beaches open after being told of the new attack Monday.
``It's endangering people,'' said David Winter, 33, whose nephew, 10-year-old David Peltier, became the first person in the country to die from a shark attack this year.
He called Virginia Beach's choice to reopen its beaches to the public one day after the attack ``irresponsible.''
``I guess people go to beaches for the beach and don't think about what's in the water,'' said David's grandfather, Harry Winter.
On Saturday, a shark in Virginia Beach fatally attacked 10-year-old David Peltier, ripping a 17-inch gash in his left leg and releasing him only after the boy's father hit the shark on the head. The father, Richard Peltier, carried David ashore, but the boy died hours later after losing large amounts of blood from a severed artery.
Sanderson, the Dare County spokesman, said it was too early to speculate on the type of shark responsible for Monday's attack. That would have to wait until the survivor could be interviewed and the injuries more closely examined.
The waters off North Carolina are home to all kinds of sharks, said Jack Musick, professor of marine science at The Virginia Institute of Marine Science and head of the Shark Research Program.
``At Avon you're essentially talking about the same situation here in Virginia Beach, ecologically,'' Musick said. ``There are more blacktips down there than there are up here for sure.''
The water off Cape Hatteras is bull shark territory, he said.
``They're the ones that are the problem,'' Musick said. ``They like to eat large animals like sea turtles.''
A shark aggressive enough and powerful enough to attack two people, killing one, would have to be one of the bigger sharks, such as a bull shark, said George Burgess of the International Shark Attack File.
``It's a large shark,'' he said. ``And more commonly found right along the beach with a reputation for attacking humans.''
Bull sharks have been implicated in a number of severe attacks, including a July attack on an 8-year-old boy in Pensacola, Fla., and a fatal attack on a man in St. Petersburg, Fla., last summer, he said.
These are the first reported attacks in North Carolina this year.
Carolyn McCormick, managing director of the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau, said that a common denominator with Monday's attack and the one in Virginia Beach on Saturday was that they both occurred around 6 p.m.
``We need to ask people to act with caution, especially at those times,'' she said, adding: ``Our condolences go out to everyone who's related to these two people. It's heartbreaking.''
There had been no reports of anyone seeing any sharks in the area before the attacks, officials said, but there have been sightings in recent days.
Maylon White of the Virginia Marine Science Museum said the ferocity of the attack ``could suggest that it was a tiger shark. . . . There is no way to know for sure. All you can do is rule out other suspects.''
What he was certain of is that the proximity and timing of the two fatal attacks is stunning.
``I think it would surprise anybody,'' he said late Monday. ``Last year there was only one fatality in the U.S. and here we have had two occur.''
He said it was difficult to know if the events are merely a tragic coincidence or evidence of something more ominous.
``If we go for the rest of the year without anything, people will look back and say it was coincidental,'' he said. ``But if something else happens in the next few weeks, that will change the thinking.''
He said officials face tough choices in answering the question of whether beaches should remain open.
There have been only 19 recorded attacks -- including the two Monday -- in North Carolina waters since 1670. But five nonfatal attacks were reported last year, giving the state the second-highest number of incidents; Florida posted 34.
Last year, a 12-year-old girl was attacked near Corolla on the Outer Banks. She required 300 stitches, but survived.
Monday's attack came just as the local and national news media were attempting to add a layer of perspective to 48 hours of heavy coverage of Friday's fatal attack in Virginia Beach.
CNN, for instance, had labeled this the ``Year of the Shark.'' But by Sunday evening, the fact that the number of reported attacks this year is no greater than the levels of recent years was getting greater attention. Then, in the midst of a special half-hour report on shark attacks, came news of the latest fatality on the Outer Banks.
Many coastal residents, tourism officials and beachgoers had sought to be calm about the situation, most recognizing the Virginia Beach death as highly unusual.
How the new attack just down the coastline would affect people's attitudes and tourism was unclear.
``I think this is going to really shake things,'' said Gary Barnette, 61, a retired law enforcement officer who has lived just south of Avon on Ocracoke Island for 18 years. ``This is something you really don't want to see. It's scary.''
Boy dies after shark attack- VIRGINIA BEACH, VA
SEP.2.2001
David Peltier, of Richmond, was pronounced dead at Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters at 3:45 a.m. ET Sunday.
As a result of the attack, the main artery in his left thigh was severed, resulting in significant blood loss, according to a spokesman for Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters.
David was visiting his father, Richard Peltier, a resident of Virginia Beach, when the attack happened Saturday evening around 6 p.m. ET. The father and son were in about 4 feet of water on a sandbar approximately 50 yards offshore.
Witnesses of the attack say the father could be seen hitting the shark over the head to try to get it to release his son.
David was initially treated at Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital, and was then transferred to the trauma unit at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital and then taken to Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters where he died.
David's family released a statement through the hospital saying they "appreciate the expressions of concern, sympathy and support they have received from the community and asks that prayers on their behalf continue."
"I speak for the entire city of Virginia Beach when I say how terribly saddened I am by this horrible accident," Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf said.
Shark attacks are exceptionally in Virginia Beach, according to Maylon White, curator of the Virginia Marine Science Museum. Officials believe Saturday's shark attack was the first in the Virginia Beach area in some 30 years.
In Florida, there have been 28 shark attacks this year. One of the Florida attacks severed the arm of 8-year-old Jessie Arbogast and left him in a light coma.
White noted that sharks in Virginia Beach waters are typically small varieties, such as sandbar, sand tiger and hammerhead. Rarely found are larger types such as tiger and bull sharks, he said. It's not known what type of shark attacked David Peltier.
In order to prevent further attacks in Virginia Beach waters this weekend, Mayor Oberndorf has asked city public safety officials to take all possible precautions to safeguard swimmers from shark attacks.
EMS will have boats patrolling all ocean waters and vehicles checking the oceanfront from the beaches.
All lifeguards will be briefed on searching for signs of sharks prior to beginning their watches. At any sign of shark, lifeguards will require swimmers to leave the water.
EMS officials urge swimmers to be alert and use caution in swimming in the ocean, especially in non-guarded areas.
Aug. 27. 2001
Shark bites swimmer off New Smyrna Beach;
Surfers ignore warnings to hang ten
Volusia County , FLorida
NEW SMYRNA BEACH – A shark nipped a swimmer off New Smyrna Beach this afternoon, the 10th person in eight days to suffer a shark bite in Volusia County and the 20th this year.
William Goettel , 69, was swimming near the 27th Ave. beach ramp at about 4:30 p.m. when he felt something grab his left heel, according to Capt. Dave Williams of the Volusia County Beach Patrol. Goettel told Beach Patrol officers he did not see the creature that bit his heel and then let go because the water was murky, Williams said.
Flyovers of the beach earlier in the day showed no sharks in the area of the 27th Avenue approach.
Goettel left the scene in his own vehicle after being treated by Beach Patrol officers and said he would go to the hospital if he believed stitches were necessary, Williams said.
Further north, surfers unconcerned about the possibility of shark bites ventured into waters closed since last week by the Beach Patrol, despite warnings that they surfers would not be rescued if they got into trouble.
A one-mile stretch of beach south of Ponce Inlet will officially remain closed, at least until Tuesday, because of concerns about large numbers of sharks patrolling the shoreline. The Beach patrol surveyed the waters throughout the day today and concluded the waters were not safe for swimming or surfing.
But surfers lured by good surf conditions defied the county's order today and went into the water anyway. Although the Beach Patrol warned last week that it might arrest anyone who tried to go into the water, it took a hands-off approach today. The surfers were just warned that lifeguards would not put their own safety at risk to rescue anyone in the no-surf, no-swim zone.
The one-mile stretch of beach between the inlet and
the Beachway Avenue beach approach has been closed to water activity since
Thursday after nine people were bitten along the New Smyrna Beach
coastline in the past week.
The most recent bite occurred Saturday in front of the Flagler Avenue
Beach approach, south of the closed area.
However, seven of the nine bites, have taken place in the restricted area.
All the victims were either surfing or riding boogey boards when they were
bitten.
Saturday’s bite was the 19th of the year, which broke the previous bite
record of 18 in 1996.
The 9th shark attack reported near Ponce de Leon Inlet, volusia county Florida.
NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Despite precautions taken by the Volusia County Beach Patrol in closing a wide area of the beach south of Ponce de Leon Inlet Saturday, a 19th shark-bite incident sent one surfer to the hospital.
Ben Gibbs, 18, of Casselberry, was bitten in the right foot and the upper thigh around 4 p.m. as rode a boogie board in front of the lifeguard station near the Flagler Avenue beach ramp, said Capt. Dave Williams of the Volusia County Beach Patrol. Gibbs was treated at the scene but decided to go to the hospital near his home, Williams said.
Gibbs was south of the mile stretch of surf closed to swimmers and surfers all weekend because of a rash of shark bites this past week.
Just minutes before the incident, Williams flew overhead in the county's Air One helicopter in search of the dangerous predators, which have been swarming the area for more than a week. Williams said he also scanned the waters around 10 a.m. from the air and saw just one shark.
The attack brings the count to 19 shark bites this year along county beaches, nine in the last week.
Wednesday, August 22, 2001
Another shark bite pushes year's tally to record-tying 18 attacks
NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- A small shark sunk its teeth into a 17-year-old surfer's foot Wednesday afternoon, marking the eighth reported bite in five days, Beach Patrol officers said.
The bite Wednesday south of Ponce de Leon Inlet marks the 18th one this year, matching a 1996 record for shark bites along Volusia County beaches in a single year. Most of the bites have been relatively minor; none has been fatal.
Because of the string of "hit and run" bites recently, Beach Patrol officers banned water activities in the surf for a half-mile stretch south of the south jetty late Wednesday afternoon and for today.
Leery from a string of bites beginning Saturday and running through the beginning of the week, Beach Patrol officers asked a sheriff's helicopter to fly over the inlet Wednesday afternoon to check for shark activity, said Beach Patrol Deputy Chief Joe Wooden.
"After seeing sharks in the inlet, we went up and down the beach making public announcements warning surfers and letting them know they were in the water at their own risk," Wooden said.
Several surfers didn't heed the warning, and less than an hour later, at 4:20 p.m., a small shark bit Lowell Lutz of Edgewater in the left foot.
Beach Patrol officers treated the small bite and released Lutz at the scene.
After lifeguards closed the half-mile small stretch of surf for water activities, most surfers either packed up for the day or moved farther south.
Keith Mitchell, 17, of Edgewater, was surfing near the Flagler Avenue beach approach and said he didn't like having the best stretch of surf closed. "But with so many sharks in the water it is pretty smart," he said.
Mitchell's twin brother, Kevin, said he has seen numerous sharks in the past while surfing and never had a problem, but agreed halting water-related activities near the inlet was probably a good idea.
Wooden said most shark bites in the county happen in the late spring or early summer. The recent string of attacks is unusually late in the season, he said.
Most bites are blamed on young or disoriented blacktip and spinner sharks that mistake people for baitfish.
"There are a lot of factors in play causing these bites," Wooden said. "We have had some unusually high surf and some cloudy water around the jetty. Both contribute to disorienting sharks."
Wooden said breakers were averaging 2 feet high on most county beaches, but just south of the inlet waves were nearing 4 feet Wednesday afternoon.
In the past five days, eight shark attacks have been reported along county beaches. In April, a similar cluster of bites happened when seven shark attacks were reported in a span of three days. Twelve bites were reported during all of last year.
Wooden said he was surprised so many surfers continue to brave the ocean despite the string of bites.
"The thing is, the surfing community knows the sharks are out there. They know they are biting. But they go into the water anyway," he said.
Shamon Burton, 22, of New Smyrna Beach, a clerk at the Quiet Flight Surf Shop on Flagler Avenue, said the closure was probably a good idea right now, but he might see things differently if the waves at the inlet were particularly nice.
"With as many bites as there have been lately, it is not worth chancing it," he said. "But if it were really, really good, that would be a whole different story."
08/21/01
Seventh surfer in four days bit by shark off Volusia beaches
NEW SMYRNA BEACH Florida — A surfer was bitten by a shark off the Volusia County coast today, the seventh attack along the county’s stretch of beaches in four days.
Omar Oyarce, 27, was bitten in the right thigh when he re-entered the water after the beach had been cleared for a short time because of lightning. Oyarce was taken to a hospital but his injuries weren’t serious and he was released.
“I was just getting in,” Oyarce told Orlando television station WKMG. “I don’t think I’m going to come back here again.”
He’s not the only shark attack victim who will avoid New Smyrna Beach in the near future.
Seventeen-year-old Becky Chapman used to love surfing near the Ponce de Leon Inlet off New Smyrna Beach, with its 3-foot waves and warm waters.
But it’s going to be a long time before she returns to the place where a shark badly bit her leg last weekend, she said.
“I’d always gone to the Inlet because that’s where the surfing is the best,” Chapman said today. “I had seen sharks ... but never had they ever bothered me before.
“After this, I’ll go surf somewhere else,” she added.
Chapman was one of seven swimmers attacked in the waters off New Smyrna Beach during the past four days. Over Easter weekend, seven people were bitten.
That raises to 16 the total of attacks along more than 50 miles of Volusia County’s beaches this year, said George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File in Gainesville.
The Volusia County Beach Patrol said today that it has recorded one more than Burgess — 17. The record for the county’s beaches is 18 set in 1996.
Forty-one shark attacks have occurred worldwide since January. Thirty of them have been in the United States, 23 in Florida.
Chapman said she was attacked while sitting on her surf board in waist-deep water. The bite severed her Achilles tendon, nicked an artery and tore muscles in her left calf.
“When I was on the beach, they wouldn’t let me look at my leg, but I reached down and felt it when I was still in the water,” Chapman said.
“That’s what made me start panicking, when I felt how serious it was. It’s kind of gruesome ... when I put my hand down, I could feel the artery pumping.”
Chapman was in good condition today, but said she didn’t expect to be released from Bert Fish Medical Center for another two days.
Dr. Arlen Stauffer, medical director of the hospital’s emergency department, said the attack Chapman suffered was typical of those treated at his hospital, though her wounds were more severe.
“We’ve had 45 shark bites that we’ve treated in our ER (in the past five years); 28 of them were surfers,” Stauffer said. “But only about five of those bite victims had to be taken to the operating room.”
Many surfers were asking a higher power for safety before getting in the water. One young man, board in arm, twice made the sign of the Cross before diving into the surf.
Another surfer, 23-year-old Christie Bew, said: “I see them (the sharks) out there, so I say my prayers and hope that I’m taken care of.”
“When you step into the water, you step into the food chain,” said one local, 52-year-old Woody Hart, who brought his camcorder to the beach today.
Meanwhile, state Rep. Charlie Justice, D-St. Petersburg, said today that he would was looking into filing legislation that would regulate or potentially ban shark feeding off the Florida coast.
“There is a growing concern that with these shark feedings, sharks will eventually associate humans with food,” Justice said.
08/18/01
Six people were bit by sharks off New Smyrna Beach over the weekend
 |
"Volusia County is perhaps the shark attack capital of the world,'' said Samuel H. Gruber, a professor of marine biology at the University of Miami.
Six people were bit by sharks off New Smyrna Beach over the weekend, raising to 15 the total of shark attacks along more than 50 miles of Volusia County's popular beaches this year, according to University of Florida shark expert George Burgess.
Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack Files in Gainesville, said 29 of this year's shark attacks have been in the United States.
Lifeguards today temporarily closed a quarter mile stretch of New Smyrna Beach for a second day in a row after a shark was spotted swimming in the surf. But surfers, lifeguards and shark experts were quick to point out that the shark encounters are nothing new. Surfers and kayakers regularly see them in the surf. And last Easter weekend, there were seven shark attacks here over a two-day period.
"They're always there. You just have to be careful and know what's around,'' said surfer Leonardo Pedreros, 18.
A combination of murky water, caused by recent heavy rains pouring silt into the water, and an unusually crowded beach due to a surfing contest, may have caused the sharks to mistake humans for fish.
"When the water is clean, there is no problem because the sharks can see,'' said Dan Jacocks, 44, who kayaks every morning off New Smyrna Beach, about 15 miles south of Daytona Beach.
New Smyrna Beach and adjoining Ponce Inlet hold a diverse population of bait fish that attracts the sharks and may explain why the area leads the world in shark attacks, Burgess said.
"It's a smorgasbord of food coming back and forth,'' he said.
Jaison Valentin should know. A shark mistook his left hand for food Saturday while he was surfing off New Smyrna Beach. The shark left a 2-inch gash on the backside of his hand, requiring surgery to repair torn tendons and ligaments.
"It took a nice big chunk out of my hand,'' said Valentin, who said he plans to return to surfing once his hand is healed. "I knew to get the hell out of the water.''
Another victim, 17-year-old Beacky Chapman underwent surgery at Bert Fish Hospital but was in good condition Monday. Hospital spokeswoman Kate Holcomb said Chapman was to be released later in the day.
Sharks also have been on the attack this month in the Bahamas, where two Americans were bitten in the leg. Both are recovering at a Miami hospital, one after having his leg amputated.
An 8-year-old boy was attacked by a bull shark in July in Pensacola, on Florida's Gulf Coast. Jessie Arbogast's arm was severed and he lost nearly all his blood. The arm was reattached but Jessie remains in a light coma.
Last year, there were 79 shark attacks worldwide, 51 in the United States, 34 in Florida and 12 in Volusia County, Burgess said. Volusia County currently is on pace to surpass its record for shark attacks (18) set in 1996.
Surfer Sean Nolan saw one advantage to the shark attacks. "It thins the line,'' said Nolan, 24, a student. "Usually it is so crowded. Maybe this will keep people away.''
Another story...
Sharks attack three more surfers off Volusia County beaches
NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Sharks 6: Surfers 0.
|
N-J/Mark
I. Johnson
Bobby Kurrek, 32, of New Smyrna Beach, describes what happened to him Sunday afternoon while waiting for treatment for a shark bite to his right foot at Bert Fish Medical Center. |
According to Volusia County Beach Patrol officials, two of Sunday's attacks occurred in the same area as Saturday's incidents, about a half-mile south of Ponce de Leon Inlet. The third took place in Wilbur-by-the-Sea, near the 4000 block of South Atlantic Avenue, at about 10 a.m.
That victim, a 17-year-old female surfer, was bitten on the left foot, according to Deputy Chief Joe Wooden. Her name was not released because Beach Patrol officials were unable to contact her parents, Wooden said.
The teen was treated at the scene by lifeguards and then transported to Halifax Medical Center where she was treated and released, Wooden said.
About three hours later, lifeguards south of the inlet were notified two surfers had been bitten within a minute of each other at about 1:15 p.m.
According to Capt. Dave Williams, Becky Chapman, 17, of Winter Park and Bobby Kurrek, 32, of New Smyrna Beach, were surfing about a half-mile apart when they were attacked.
He said Chapman was in about chest-deep water and was getting back on her board after a ride when a shark grabbed her left leg.
"It bit her through her left calf muscle, severing two tendons," said Chapman's father, Ted, while waiting outside Bert Fish Medical Center. "They said it was a 6- to 7-foot black tip shark."
He said Becky reached down and touched the shark. When she realized what it was, she started punching the fish in an effort to get it to let go, Ted Chapman said. Becky was helped to shore by a friend and then transported to the hospital.
Becky underwent surgery late Sunday afternoon to repair the damage to her leg. She was listed in good condition.
"The doctors said she is going to be OK," Ted Chapman said.
He said Becky has been surfing for about two years, mostly in the New Smyrna Beach area, and this was not her first encounter with a shark.
"She was brushed by one over the July 4 weekend," he said.
Ted Chapman added he does not believe the encounter will stop his daughter from wanting to surf, but her mother may have other ideas.
"I think she is going to cut up Becky's surfboards and put them in the fireplace," he said.
Kurrek said his encounter marked the first time he was truly scared while surfing.
He had been surfing for about two hours near the south jetty and was headed to shore when he found himself surrounded by sharks.
"I looked right and saw four or five. I looked left and saw six or seven," Kurrek said. "I was only in about two or three feet of water, 50 yards from shore."
He said two of the animals came racing toward him when one "jetted underneath me," bumping his surfboard. It then turned around and grabbed Kurrek's right foot in its mouth.
"It yanked me off my stick," he said. "My whole foot was in its mouth."
The shark quickly released Kurrek and he was able to get to shore. He walked to a nearby lifeguard for treatment of several cuts to the top and bottom of the foot before going to Bert Fish Medical Center where he was treated and released Sunday afternoon.
Kurrek said he has seen several smaller sharks while surfing New Smyrna Beach waters over the past dozen years, but Sunday's fish were much larger.
"They were 4 or 5 feet long, gray on the top and white on the bottom," he said.
After the attacks on Kurrek and Chapman, the Beach Patrol closed about a mile of the beach from the inlet south. It remained closed for the rest of the day.
Williams and Wooden said the Beach Patrol decided Sunday morning to open beaches to swimming and surfing despite Saturday's attacks, but they took extra precautions. That included asking the National Scholastic Surfing Association surf contest to relocate farther away from the inlet in an effort to prevent activity in the waters from stirring up shark activity, Wooden said.
Two of the three surfers injured Saturday were participating in that contest. One, Jason Valentine of New Smyrna Beach, remained in Bert Fish Medical Center Sunday after surgery to repair damage from a shark bite to his hand. He was listed in good condition and expected to be released early this morning, according to a hospital spokesperson. The other victims, Jeff White, 20, and Dylan Feindt, 19, both of New Smyrna Beach, were released from BFMC late Saturday after treatment for wounds to the feet and ankles.
In addition to moving the surf contest, Wooden said the Beach Patrol had a boat and a power-ski out looking for sharks near the inlet. If any had been spotted, the beach would have been closed immediately, he said. "They didn't report seeing anything until just after the attacks," Wooden said.
Sunday's attacks bring the total for Volusia County this year to 17. That is one shy of the 1996 record of 18, Wooden said. And it represents almost half the 37 incidents reported worldwide this year.
"But you have to put that in perspective," he said. "Australia has only had three shark attacks, but they were all fatal. We have never had a fatality off Volusia beaches."
3 rd news alert
08/18/01 Florida
NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- The "World's Safest Bathing Beach" wasn't for three surfers Saturday as shark bites sent them to an area hospital.
According to Deputy Chief Joe Wooden of the Volusia County Beach Patrol, all of the attacks occurred nearly a mile south of the Ponce de Leon Inlet's south jetty between 10 a.m. and 12:45 p.m.
"We saw sharks all morning long," said Leon Johnston, director for the North Central Florida Conference of the National Scholastic Surf Association, host of the surf contest being held in the bite zone. "There were bull sharks 7 to 8 feet long and 6-foot blacktips.
He said smaller sharks also were seen within 2 to 3 feet of shore, causing contestants to run around or jump over them as they headed out to their heats.
Two of those bitten Saturday, Jeff White, 20, and Dylan Feindt, 19, both of New Smyrna Beach, were contestants in the event, said Johnston. The third victim, Jason Valentine, 20, also of New Smyrna Beach, was apparently free surfing near the contest area, he said.
The attacks didn't seem to faze other surfers.
Pete Frederiksen, 25, of Largo, said he was next to one of the victims when the attack occurred.
"I saw him lift up his foot and say 'Darn, I just got bit by a shark,' " Frederiksen recalled. "There were about five or six cuts on his foot."
He said he kept surfing until Beach Patrol officers closed about a mile of beach to bathers and surfers after White's attack. The beach remained closed from about 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., according to Capt. Rob Horster.
With the closure, Johnston said his group moved their event south to the Beachway Avenue beach approach and continued the contest.
"Every local knows the inlet is a nursery for sharks," he said. "But they were a lot more aggressive today than I have seen in the 30 years I have lived here."
The first bite was reported about 10 a.m. when Feindt came up to the contest tent with cuts on his left foot. He was treated at the scene by an off-duty Beach Patrol officer and went to Bert Fish Medical Center by personal vehicle.
Shortly after noon, Valentine was bitten across the back of his left hand. While Beach Patrol lifeguards were treating him, about 30 minutes later, White reported suffering a bite on his right foot, said Wooden.
Halifax/Fish Community Healthspokesman Kate Holcomb said Valentine underwent surgery to repair the damage to his hand Saturday afternoon and was expected to be admitted to the hospital overnight. He was listed in good condition. The other two men were treated in the emergency room and released.
Johnston said he warned contestants to be wary of the sharks, but decided not to shut down.
"(Sharks) are in the water and we are in the water. We just hope we don't run into each other," he said Saturday afternoon. "We will be back at the inlet in the morning."
Wooden said he believes the sharks were drawn to the area by large concentrations of baitfish near the inlet. When that was added to the murky water along shore Saturday and a large number of people surfing, it was a "bad combination," he said.
The attacks drew national media attention, Wooden said.
"It has been media day at the beach," he said.
The attacks bring the number of shark bites reported in Volusia County for the year to 14, none life-threatening. Last year, 12 bites were recorded.
08/17/01 Grand Bahamas
Spear fisherman Kent Bonde lay in a Jackson Memorial Hospital bed Friday, a chunk of his calf in the belly of a Bahamian shark.
Bonde, 43, of Miami Shores, was attacked -- by a bull shark, he thinks -- while spearfishing a day earlier. He was in 15 feet of water near High Rock on the southeastern section of Grand Bahama Island.
It wasn't the shark's fault, he said.
``We are not part of their menu,'' Bonde said. ``It's their ocean. We are taking a calculated risk.''
Thursday's attack -- the second in two weeks there -- triggered some concerns about what might lurk under the emerald ocean.
``Stay out of the water,'' advised Dr. Tamara Burke, an emergency room physician who initially treated Bonde at Rand Memorial Hospital in Freeport.
``It's quite unusual to get two shark bites in the same island in two weeks. Obviously there is a phenomenon going on that we don't understand yet.''
But shark scientists repeated the message they've issued since 8-year-old Jessie Arbogast was mauled off the Florida Panhandle seven weeks ago: The notion of a shark stalking humans is pure fiction.
``It may sound logical that they're connected, but it's not biologically logical,'' said Samuel Gruber, a University of Miami professor and internationally renowned shark authority.
While it is possible the same shark was involved in the two Bahamian attacks, Gruber said, ``There is a possibility it was a Tyrannosaurus rex, too.''
Bonde said he had been fishing for a couple of hours for hogfish with his wife and a friend -- all certified scuba instructors.
``It was like a freight train,'' he said. ``I turned around and saw blood. There was no pain. I felt the ripping.''
At the time, Bonde, who works for the city of Miami Beach's Redevelopment Agency, was going up for air and had no bloody fish on his spear. The attack, around 4 p.m., took him by surprise.
``I called for help and swam back over to her,'' he said, referring to his wife. ``There was blood everywhere.''
AFTER THE ATTACK
On the boat his wife applied pressure to the wound. The party called for an ambulance and rushed back to land.
Burke, the emergency room doctor at Rand, said Bonde's life was never in danger.
``He didn't lose a significant amount of blood, but he lost a significant amount of muscle and tissue -- a third to half of his calf muscle,'' she said.
Lincoln Jones, 53, who leads charters in Green Turtle Cay, said the sport can be dangerous: ``If you are spearfishing, don't stay in one place too long -- they'll come after you.''
Shark attacks, scientists say, are almost always random, and this year's total, despite the ``Summer of the Shark'' media stories, is fairly typical.
``It's causing a panic that doesn't need to be caused,'' said Terri Behling, spokeswoman for the Center for Shark Research at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota.
Researchers at the center refused to field questions Friday after being deluged in the wake of attacks on the Arbogast boy as well as New York tourist Krishna Thompson off Freeport two weeks ago and the schooling of sharks off Anclote Key near St. Petersburg this week.
``It's been so out of control this week,'' Behling said.
Bonde was the 32nd person reported bitten by a shark worldwide this year, including one who died. Twenty-one were in U.S. waters, including 16 off Florida.
That compares to 79 last year worldwide, 51 in the United States and 34 off Florida.
According to statistics compiled by the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of History in Gainesville, the Bahamas have had a low frequency of shark incidents -- 39 confirmed attacks in more than a century, including only three off Grand Bahama. Two of those came in the last two weeks.
``I look at this with a jaundiced eye,'' said UM's Gruber. ``We're still talking about incredibly small numbers here.''
Other than occurring off the same island, there appeared to be few similarities.
Bonde was more than 30 miles from the beach at Our Lucaya Beach & Golf Resort where Thompson was hit.
Thompson was wading in shallow water just yards from the beach. Bonde was snorkeling in 15 to 20 feet of water.
08/04/01 Freeport Bahamas
| Wedding anniversary man fought off shark during attack |
A Wall Street banker beat off a shark as it attacked him before swimming back to shore using only one leg.
Before Krishna Thompson passed out on the Bahamian beach, he wrote his hotel room number in the sand so that he could be identified.
Mr Thompson, who is now at Jackson Memorial Hospital, Miami, after having his left leg amputated just below the knee, was on a wedding anniversary holiday.
He had been swimming alone when the shark attacked him off the coast of Freeport, Grand Bahama.
His wife of 10 years Ave Maria Thompson said: "He kept punching and punching. He has cuts on his hands because of that. He is so brave. To fight off a shark and then think to do that."
08-03-2001 Italy
A father and son have beaten off an 18ft shark with a
piece of wood after it started ramming their fishing boat.
They were 15 miles off Rimini when their 18ft boat was attacked.
Coastguards are monitoring the area in case the Great White heads for
Italy's holiday beaches.
A spokesman said: "It is a man-eater. I would advise people in the
sea to be careful and if they see a fin to get out as quickly as
possible."
The men say they were lucky to escape with their lives as the shark was
threatening to sink their boat, reports the Daily Mail.
Giacomo Longhi said: "It just seemed to go on forever. He just kept
hitting the boat over and over again."
His father Tersilio added: "The shark was the length of our boat. I
grabbed a piece of wood and kept hitting it, then it disappeared."
07.22.01
Massachusetts, USA
Great white attacks boat off US Coast
A 14-foot-long shark repeatedly smashed into a boat carrying terrified
tourists off the Massachusetts coast.
No-one was hurt during the ten-minute ordeal, but the boat shook from
side to side as the 700 pound shark slammed against the vessel.
The creature was believed to be a man-eating Great White shark.
The boat's captain, Joe Fitzback, said: "He was thrashing and
banging it with his head, and slapping the side with his back. We all
got drenched.
"It shook the boat back and forth. I had to hold a couple of
people's belts so they wouldn't go overboard."
The Boston Herald says Mr Fitzback, who owns Top Rod Custom Charters,
and his six passengers were nearing the end of a fishing tour when the
attack started near Chatham and Monomoy Island, near South Beach.
Mr Fitzback alerted the Chatham harbour master to the shark and boats
have been patrolling the coastline looking for it.
If it is found, crews are likely to shoot it.
Possible shark attack victim in good condition
July 16, 2001 Posted: 12:09 PM EDT (1609 GMT)
PENSACOLA,
Florida (CNN) -- A man is in good condition Monday after undergoing
surgery for what he described as a shark bite that happened off Florida,
just miles from where a young boy was nearly killed in a separate shark
attack.
Michael Waters, 48, was surfing when he was bitten Sunday, he said. Waters is expected to be released later Monday, the hospital said.
Another man was treated and released, after being hurt in another shark encounter Sunday off Florida's east coast.
Waters said he was bitten in the waters off the coast of the Florida Panhandle, near Pensacola, about 2:30 p.m., just miles from where a shark bit off 8-year-old Jessie Arbogast's arm and tore into his leg, the Escambia County Sheriff's Office reported.
"From what the doctors say, it's consistent with a shark bite," Lt. Bob Clark of the Escambia County Sheriff's Office said Monday.
Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola could not confirm that it was a shark bite, until officials spoke to the doctors, hospital spokesman Mike Burke said. Waters had surgery on his foot and heel Sunday to repair blood vessels, Burke explained.
The Pensacola News-Journal quoted the man's daughter-in-law, Claressa Selva, 20, as saying the shark was drawn to shore by a shore fisherman who was throwing out bait in the swimming area.
Clark could not confirm that report, saying he believes the shark -- like many others -- was drawn to the area by pods of "bait fish" or smaller fish, feeding in the area.
Selva told the Pensacola News-Journal that the shark bit Waters' ankle and pulled him under the water.
"Thank God he knew how to react. He just started hitting the shark with his surfboard," she said. "We're all still in shock right now, it hasn't quite hit us. We saw everything that happened to that poor little boy, and we just never thought that was something that could happen to our family."
At the same time, an 18-year-old man using a boogie board off Fernandina Beach on Florida's east coast, near the Georgia state line, suffered "small-to-moderate lacerations" to his right foot when a shark swam past, said Capt. John Hailey, of Nassau County Fire Rescue.
"He said he saw an object about three feet long roll and splash, and then his foot started hurting," Hailey said. The man, whose name was not released, identified the object as a shark.
Officials believe the shark's mouth was open and the teeth dragged across the man's leg, Hailey said.
The 18-year-old, who was vacationing with his parents from Cincinnati, Ohio, was taken by ambulance to Shands-Jacksonville Hospital. A spokeswoman there said he was treated and released.
In Escambia County, Waters told authorities he was paddling his board about 100 yards from shore to catch a wave, his left leg dangling in the water. He said he saw a school of small fish and a "dark shadow" just before his ankle was bitten.
He paddled back to shore where he called out for help. He was then taken by ambulance to Sacred Heart Hospital.
Authorities estimated Sunday's incident happened about six to eight miles from the area Jessie was attacked. The boy was wading in knee-deep water at the Gulf Islands National Seashore on July 6 when he was mauled by a 7-foot bull shark, which tore off his arm and bit a large portion of his thigh.
Jessie was in critical but stable condition Sunday at Sacred Heart Children's Hospital after his arm was reattached at Baptist Hospital, also in Pensacola, a statement said.
Despite the proximity of the incidents, Clark said authorities had no plans to issue official warnings about sharks in the water.
"There are sharks all over, up and down the whole entire Gulf Coast," Clark said. "How do you warn someone that there are sharks out there all the time anyway?"
Clark said swimmers and surfers must be aware that sharks tend to swim in the waters, sometimes very close to shore.
He said Sunday's incident highlights some danger signs: The surfer was in murky water, and he was swimming near a school of bait fish, a primary source of food for sharks.
"If you do encounter that, it would be wise probably to swim elsewhere," Clark said. "Just be mindful of your and their environment."
