U.S.

More People, More Shark Bites

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

August 19, 2001 / 7:05 PM EDT / CBS

Sharks bit six people off a Florida Atlantic coast beach Saturday and Sunday, most of them surfers in an inlet where sharks gather to dine on baitfish, the beach patrol said.

None of the injuries was believed to be life-threatening but the victims were all taken to hospitals with foot, leg and hand wounds.

At least five of the victims were surfers, including two competing in a contest held along the New Smyrna Beach area of Volusia County, south of Daytona Beach.

"That happens to be one of the best surfing sites in the state of Florida," said Joe Wooden, deputy beach chief for Volusia County.

The inlet is also rich in baitfish, which get flushed into the mouth of the inlet when the tide goes out, drawing sharks.

"Typically, all of our bites occur in the inlet area," Wooden said.

Leon Johnston, director for the organization that sponsored the weekend surfing contest, told the Daytona Beach News-Journal that there were so many sharks swimming near shore Saturday that contestants had to run around or jump over them as they headed out to compete.

On Saturday, two surfing contestants were bitten in the foot and a third man surfing nearby was bitten in the hand. Beach Patrol officers temporarily closed a one-mile stretch of beach and moved the contest farther south, with the other contestants seemingly unfazed.

Contestant Pete Frederiksen told the newspaper that he saw one of the injured lift his foot and say, "Darn, I just got bit by a shark."

The beaches reopened Sunday, with Beach Patrol officers scanning the water from boats and jet skis.

A shark bit a 17-year-old girl's foot Sunday morning. Two sharks struck within one minute of each other Sunday afternoon, one biting another 17-year-old girl's calf while the second bit a 32-year-old man's foot, Wooden said.

"At that point we went ahead and closed the beach down again for a one-mile stretch south of the inlet and we're going to keep it closed for the rest of the day," Wooden said.

"It is very unusual that we've had six bites in two days," he said. "We just had a huge amount of people in the water."

Shark attacks are relatively rare in Florida, considering that 90 million residents and tourists flocked to the state's beaches last year. But a horrific attack last month on an eight-year-old boy off the Florida coast near Pensacola has focused new attention on shark bites.

In that incident, a bull shark tore off Jessie Arbogast's arm, which was recovered from the shark's throat and surgically reattached. The boy was released from the hospital last week, still in a light coma.

It's become so prevalent a headline the season now has a nickname: the "Summer of the Shark."

So what's changed? Scientists say only the attention. Off the coast of Sarasota last week — there were almost as many news helicopters as there were sharks to be photographed.

Said Robert Heuter, a shark researcher, "A helicopter pilot goes up, takes some video nd you see the animals out there and all of a sudden, people think the risk has gone up. It hasn't gone up."

The attacks over the weekend may have occurred because so many surfers were splashing around in the water, not because the animals are getting more aggressive, an expert on shark attacks said.

"I don't think it indicates we're under siege or anything like that," said George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack Files at the University of Florida. "The results are almost inevitable given the conditions."

There were 79 shark attacks on humans worldwide last year, 10 of them fatal, according to the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida. Thirty-four of those occurred in Florida, including 12 along the Volusia County beaches where the weekend attacks occurred.

Of the 37 shark bites reported worldwide this year, 17 occurred in Volusia County, county deputy beach chief John Wooden said.