A family member stepped in and chased the shark away from a teenage girl who had lost her leg after it attacked her while she was scalloping in five-foot-deep water.
The unnamed 15-year-old was attacked off Keaton Beach in Taylor County, close to Grassy Island.
According to the sheriff’s office, the victim’s injuries required airlifting to a hospital in Tallahassee, which is located about 80 miles to the northwest of Keaton Beach.
Sheriff Wayne Padgett of Taylor County told CBS News that she underwent surgery and is expected to recover.
When the shark bit the young woman, she was scalloping in seas that, according to authorities, were about 5 feet deep. What kind of shark it was remained unclear.
The sheriff’s office said ‘swimmers and scallopers are cautioned to be alert, vigilant, and practice shark safety.’
One important regulation that beachgoers must abide by is to never swim by themselves. To avoid swimming in the waters near fishing docks and sandbars, where sharks frequently gather.
Additionally, it’s advisable for swimmers to stay away from huge schools of fish and to keep their movements in the water controlled.
According to The International Shark File, Florida leads the globe in shark bites and is home to close to 40% of all shark attacks that are not provoked (ISAF).
According to its website, the ISAF, which is housed at the University of Florida and the Florida Museum of Natural History, is “the only global scientifically verified database of shark attacks.” The ISAF estimated that since its founding in 1958, there have been more than 6,800 distinct investigations spanning the time from the early 1500s to the present.
According to the ISAF, Volusia County in Florida, which is known as the “Shark Bite Capital of the World,” had the most shark attacks (17 total), making up 63 percent of all attacks in Florida.
The 28 occurrences in Florida account for 60% of all unprovoked bites in the United States and 38% worldwide. The 25 incidents each year on average during the previous five years in Florida are consistent with this.