I try to follow shark attacks due to my infatuation with Jaws and sea-horror.
And it has been a long time since the shark attack of 2004. But it has happened again, this time a girl.
From NY Daily News
‘Jaws’ horror kills girl
Shark bites off her leg near Florida.
A 14-year-old girl paddling on a Boogie board met a gruesome end yesterday when a bloodthirsty 11-foot shark viciously tore off her leg in waters off a crowded Florida beach.
Despite the heroic efforts of a surfer who risked his life to pull the maimed teen to shore, she later died - becoming the first person killed by a shark in the U.S. this year.
The terrifying incident happened on the first weekend of summer - and the 30th anniversary of the release of the movie “Jaws” - as the girl and a pal enjoyed the surf 200 yards from a coastal campground on Florida’s Panhandle.
“They saw a dark shape in the water,” Walton County Sheriff’s Department Lt. Frank Owens told the Daily News.
“Then one girl saw her friend get pulled under the water. … The shark was feeding on a large school of fish at the time.”
Ouch. Just another victim. Why do people not take the sea/ocean seriously? Do they not think about all the sea creatures who inhabit the waters?
Knocked from her board, the girl, who was visiting the Sunshine State from Gonzales, La., thrashed under the water with the predator.
Her friend, also 14, started paddling furiously toward shore to get help.
“A surfer nearby saw the attack and - with considerable danger to himself - came over with the shark right there and grabbed the girl,” Owens said.
“He couldn’t have been braver,” he added. Despite the tragic outcome, “this man could be called a hero.”
The names of the victim, who was pronounced dead at a local hospital, her friend and the surfer were not immediately released by police.
It was not clear what type of shark attacked the girl, and authorities brought in an expert to try to identify the killer’s species.
“The girl was some distance from the shore,” said Stan Kirkland, spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. “I don’t think anyone got a good view of the shark.”
The attack was believed to be the first in the U.S. this year and led to the closing of about 20 miles of beaches in Walton County, Coast Guard officials said.
“I didn’t know that when I was told to get out it was a shark,” said Robert Goodwin, 12, of St. Louis. “I was like, what? Wow, that’s not cool.”
Thirty shark attacks were reported in the U.S. last year. One, off Hawaii, was fatal. Worldwide, there were 61 attacks, including seven that were fatal, last year.
The Florida attack comes just two weeks after a surfer off the Jersey Shore was bitten on the foot.
Yesterday’s victim and her friend were visiting relatives in Destin, a town of more than 11,000 people on the Gulf of Mexico, and enjoying the beach at the Camping on the Gulf Holiday Travel Park. The manager of the park declined to comment.
Just before the tragedy, the girls paddled past deep water and stopped at a sandbar, where the warm surf was only a few feet deep, a Walton County official said.
Residents of the popular tourist destination, crowded with sun-lovers on a day with temperatures in the upper 80s, were stunned by the shark attack, which Owens said was the first in the county in decades.
Though Florida only had 12 shark attacks off its coast last year, it had the largest number of documented shark attacks worldwide in 2003, with 30, according to the International Shark Attack File, a group at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Add another ‘Jaws’ attack to the records. As long as people inhabit the shore lines and beach fronts and water ways, there will be attacks.
