Two swimmers attacked by shark within HOURS of each other on same beach – leaving one victim with horror bite wound
TWO swimmers were attacked by sharks on the same beach within hours of each other on Monday, with one person receiving a “bad bite” to the forearm.
Karren Sites was visiting Myrtle Beach in South Carolina while on a family vacation when she said a shark bit her on the arm.
“I kept pushing at it to get it off my arm and it did.”
Brian, who was enjoying his first full day of vacation, said he couldn’t see the shark coming.
“All I saw was the shark jumped up and it didn’t even bite all the way, like I saw the movement of the tail go to the side and then she screamed,” the eight-year-old said.
“As soon as she touched it, it fell into the water.”
Sites was taken to a local hospital for surgery and got hundreds of stitches.
“It’s very clearly a shark bite, when you look at the arc of the tooth marks and the damage that was done," said Professor of Marine Science at Coastal Carolina University Daniel Abel.
"My sympathies to the victim. That’s a horrendous thing to go through."
Abel added that sharks can be common this time of year and swimmers should take precautions when entering the water.
“Not to swim at dawn and dusk, there’s not many people in the water then and some of the sharks are closer and feeding," he said.
"Don’t swim where there are schools of small fish offshore. Don’t swim near where people are fishing near piers.”
RISE IN ATTACKS
The state of South Carolina recorded four shark attacks in 2021.
An eight-year-old British boy needed a three-hour operation after being attacked by sharks while on holiday with his family in the Bahamas.
And Fischer Hricko, 13, had to be rushed to hospital with "blood gushing out of his face" after he was attacked by a shark while lobstering in Florida Keys.
Six of the attacks reported by Tracking Sharks have been fatal.
Elizabeth Sauer, 68, was killed while on holiday in Egypt as she swam in the Red Sea on July 2.
A Romanian woman was found dead the same day after she was attacked as well.
On June 28, Bruce Wolov was swimming off Plettenberg Bay, South Africa, when he was attacked by a white shark.
Antonio Roseto Degli Abruzzi, 56, died from blood loss after a tiger shark took a chunk out of his leg during a March 20 attack.
Robert Hueter, senior scientist and director at Mote Marine Laboratory’s Center for Shark Research, also warned swimmers to beware, as the number of attacks will rise thanks to environmental initiatives to protect seals.
Sharks will follow their meal, he said, adding that wherever seals, dolphins, and other prey go, sharks will follow.
“This is a natural predator-prey relationship going back eons," he said.
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“It’s not surprising that with a restored seal population, we see the predator of the seal there.”
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Shark attacks are very rare but marine biologists say swimmers should still avoid wearing dark clothing and should not swim alone.