Florida officials issue warning about sharks on beaches after three people attacked
Officials are warning of shark dangers this weekend along Florida’s Gulf Coast, where three people were injured in two separate shark attacks.
Authorities are using boats to patrol the ocean and warn swimmers about sharks this weekend along Florida’s Gulf Coast, where a woman and two teenage girls were injured in two separate shark attacks Friday.
The attacks on beaches in the Florida Panhandle prompted officials to temporarily close several beaches to swimmers on Friday. The beaches reopened on Saturday, with high-risk warning flags posted.
“All I can say is these incidents are extremely rare,” said Damien Chapman, director and scientist at the Shark Research Center at Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium in Sarasota, Florida.
“It’s even rarer to have two incidents involving three people in the same day,” he told The Associated Press on Saturday. “The likelihood of that happening is very, very low.”
The sheriff’s office, fire departments and the state wildlife agency in Walton County are working together to patrol the water with boats and the shore with vehicles, the South Walton Fire District said in an update Saturday. Both of Friday’s attacks occurred in Walton County.
“Please swim with caution today, respect the Bay, stay hydrated, and check on your loved ones,” the fire department said on social media.
Red and purple flags were being used on Saturday to warn swimmers of the dangers.
“Purple flags indicate the presence of dangerous marine life and single red flags indicate a high hazard situation,” the Bay County Sheriff’s Office said in a social media post Saturday.
The Bay County Sheriff’s Office said small fish are traveling in schools near shore at this time, which could possibly be a reason for the attacks.
The Walton County Sheriff’s Office said the first attack occurred Friday afternoon when a woman was bitten by a shark near Watersound Beach. She suffered serious injuries to her abdomen and arm and had to have part of her arm amputated. She was taken to a trauma center, South Walton Fire Chief Ryan Crawford said at a news briefing.
Less than two hours later, firefighters arrived at another beach about 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) east of the first attack, “where there were multiple reports of a juvenile injured by a shark,” the sheriff’s office said.
The South Walton Fire District said two teenage girls were in waist deep water with their friends when they were attacked.
“When lifeguards and deputies arrived on scene, they found one woman with serious injuries to her upper leg and an arm,” fire officials said in an update. She was taken to a trauma center. The other teen suffered minor injuries to one leg, officials said.
Both teens are from Mountain Brook, Alabama, a suburb of Birmingham, Mountain Brook City Manager Sam Gaston told news site Al.com.
Chapman said there’s no way to know if Friday’s attacks involved one shark or two different sharks, but there are more sharks in the Gulf of Mexico than in past years.
“The shark population in the Gulf has definitely improved after many years of overfishing,” he said. “They’re back there after being pretty much depleted.”
Walton County Sheriff Michael Adkinson said the timing of the attacks — in the middle of the afternoon — was also an anomaly. He said sheriff’s deputies often warn people to be alert for sharks in the early morning and evening, which are their usual feeding times.
On Saturday, Walton County sheriff’s deputies patrolling the waters in a boat spotted a 14-foot-long hammerhead shark near Santa Rosa Beach, which they said is not unusual. Sheriff’s officials say they do not know what kind of shark attacked the swimmers on Friday.
“We want to reiterate that sharks are always present in the Gulf,” the sheriff’s office said in a social media post Saturday. “Swimmers and beachgoers should use caution when swimming and be aware of their surroundings.”
A woman was seriously injured in a shark attack off the Hawaiian island of Oahu on Friday, authorities said.
Shark attacks are rare, according to experts. There were 69 unprovoked bites worldwide last year, and 10 of those were fatal, according to the University of Florida’s International Shark Attack File. That’s up from a recent average of six deaths per year.
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