Press
A relaxing day at the beach takes a bad turn. Several visitors are attacked by sharks in Florida and Texas. For one woman, it ends tragically.
Washington DC – Unlike in Germany, the 4th of July is a public holiday in the USA. Many people head to the beach on their days off around Independence Day. For some, this year’s Independence Day at the sea ended in a nightmare. On various stretches of coast in the US states of Texas and Florida, several bathers were attacked by sharks and some were seriously injured.
Water barely knee-deep: Shark attacks beachgoers in the USA
In Florida, two shark attacks occurred within 24 hours in shallow water at New Smyrna Beach, as the US broadcaster CNN reported. A 21-year-old man from Ohio was attacked while playing ball in knee-deep water. The following day, a 26-year-old was bitten in the leg by a shark while floating on a swimming ring in water about 1.5 meters deep. Neither of them sustained life-threatening injuries.
In Texas, however, at least four people had an unpleasant encounter with a shark on South Padre Island. Two of them were bitten, the others were left in shock after the shark swam towards them. As the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department wrote in a statement, these were the first shark attacks in this region in five years. Shark incidents are also rather unusual in Croatia – where a vacationer recently discovered a fin.
Woman loses left calf after shark bite: “If I hadn’t pulled my legs up…”
Particularly tragic was the incident involving a woman who was pulled out of the water after a shark had bitten off part of her leg. “I thought it was a big fish, so I tried to kick it away,” she told the news channel NBC through tears. Then the shark bit: “If I hadn’t pulled my legs up, it might have hit my upper body or something else.” Some disturbing images are circulating on social media showing a woman sitting on the beach with her calf missing. The veracity cannot be independently verified.
“I lost my left calf,” she wrote on the fundraising platform gofundme.comAlthough she can move her toes and her foot is getting blood flowing, she fears that she will not fully recover from the attack. “I will probably not regain full mobility, I will not have the same leg as before. But I am alive,” said the American.
Her husband Cary was also bitten when he rushed to her aid. However, he has already been released from the hospital, NBC reported. Meanwhile, last year a woman lost her arm.
Figures show: Half of all shark attacks worldwide in the USA – Florida absolute hotspot
Local authorities responded quickly to the incidents. In Texas, the coast was monitored with drones and the Texas Department of Public Safety deployed a helicopter to keep the shark away from the coast.
“Shark encounters of this kind are not common in Texas. When shark bites do occur, they are usually a case of mistaken identity by sharks looking for food,” the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department explained. Attacks on humans are generally rather atypical. According to the International Shark Attack File (ISAF), attacks worldwide increased slightly in 2023, with 69 attacks compared to 2022.
A good quarter of these occurred in the USA (52 percent) and Australia (42 percent) alone. Ten ended in death. Last summer, a fatal attack on a young Russian in a seaside resort in Egypt caused a stir in the media. A cell phone recording captured his presumed death struggle. A few weeks ago, a family was lucky enough to escape an attack while on holiday in Egypt.
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