A shark attack off Florida’s Atlantic coast on Friday left a man with a “severe bite to his right arm,” authorities said. He is in critical condition due to blood loss.
The Nassau County Sheriff’s Marine Unit, which was patrolling the coast of Fernandina Beach near the Florida-Georgia border, said it received a distress call from a boat on Friday and applied a tourniquet to stem the bleeding. fuses.
“The deputy then guided the boat to the Dee Dee Bartels boat ramp, where Fernandina Beach Fire Rescue was waiting,” the sheriff’s office said in a social media post. The unnamed man is expected to recover, authorities said.
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Earlier this month, three people — a woman and two teenage girls — were injured in attacks on Florida’s Gulf Coast. Authorities have warned swimmers that baitfish moving close to shore at this time of year could be a contributing factor to the attacks.
Florida has a flag system to warn swimmers: purple for the presence of dangerous marine life and red to indicate “very dangerous conditions.”
Authorities are also ramping up efforts to educate the public. Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says there are no guaranteed ways to prevent shark bites, but understanding shark behavior can help beachgoers make better decisions about when and where to swim.
“It is very important that people visiting Florida waters are aware of their surroundings, understand the relative risks and are informed about various shark issues such as behavior, biology and fisheries,” the committee’s Brent winner said on the website of the agency.
The commission also says that “shark bites continue to be very rare” and that people in Florida are 30 times more likely to be struck by lightning than to be bitten by a shark.
The increase in shark bites is attributed more to an increase in the number of people in the water than to greater numbers of sharks; populations are estimated to have declined by 25%-30% from what they were thirty years ago.
“Humans pose a much greater threat to sharks than they do vice versa,” the commission’s advice says, comparing the relative number of people killed by sharks each year with the number of sharks killed by humans at a distance of 10 to 100 metres.
“To ensure our own safety and the survival of these fascinating fish, people need to become more aware and better informed about sharks and related issues,” the report said.
Still, Florida tops the global list for shark bites, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History’s annual shark attack report. Last year, Florida saw 16 unprovoked shark bites, or 44 percent of the U.S. total and 23 percent of the world’s total, but there were no reported fatalities.
