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6-Foot-Long Shark Bites 13-Year-Old Boy’s Leg At Neptune Beach, Florida: Fourth Recent Shark Attack In Florida Waters

By Janice Malcolm
Published on: 13:38 PST, May 29, 2016

Reports have been confirmed that on Sunday, a 13-year-old boy was bitten by what is believed to have been a shark about six-feet-long at about 3:45 p.m. while swimming at Neptune beach in Florida.

The teenager was bitten on the leg by the shark, and was rushed to UF Health Jacksonville by way of ambulance after the shark attack, reports Neptune Beach mayor, Harriet Pruette. The incident occurred in the afternoon at the ocean offshore of Lemon Street in Neptune Beach.

The boy is said to have been in the water with his father on a surfboard when he was attacked by the shark, he was only in about three-feet of water at the time. The teenager suffered the shark bite to his right calf. The father and son immediately exited the water after the bite and alerted the lifeguards about the shark. Pruette said that it was based on the size of the shark bite wounds on his leg that the lifeguards who tended to the boy were able to approximate that the shark which attacked him was most likely about five- to six-feet-long. According to News 4 Jax, the Captain of Neptune Beach Ocean Rescue, Richmond Banks, also concurred with the estimated size of the shark by length.

“Judging by the bite, it looked to be 7 – 8 inches wide, so it could have been anywhere from 4 – 5 feet, maybe even larger.”

Ocean Rescue was on hand and was able to quickly bandage up the boy so as to get his bleeding leg under control. There were severe lacerations on his leg, but it has been said that he is in stable condition at UF Health Jacksonville.

Following the shark attack, officials closed down the Neptune Beach due to safety concerns but only for a little while. After 45 minutes, Banks said that he pulled the guards off of that detail and allowed persons to return to the water. Captain Banks was also quick to reassure the media that a shark attack such as the one on the 13-year-old boy today are very rare in that particular area.

“Probably about 15 years or more since the last time we had what we think was a shark bite. A man was bit on the foot and it looked like it was a small shark.”

The reports regarding when the shark was first spotted do not indicate whether it was before or after the teenager was bitten on the leg, but did show that there was a large crowd of swimmers in the water at the time. Lifeguards immediately began to try and usher everyone out of the water.

Banks gave a word of advice to swimmers that if fish in the area suddenly begin to start jumping, it is time to move on as it could indicate that the fish are trying to escape from a larger prey.

The Florida Times Union reported that while Neptune has not seen any shark attacks in quite a number of years, there has been an uptick in attacks in Florida waters recently. Today marked the fourth shark bite in the Northeast Florida waters in less than two weeks. On May 21, it was an 11-year-old girl who was bitten while in waist-deep water at Huguenot Memorial Park. The girl received bites to her back, arm, and hand. The other recent victim was a 48-year-old man who had been body surfing along a stretch of water in South Ponte Vedra Beach and was bitten on the ankle on May 18. Earlier this month, a woman in Boca Raton was also taken to the hospital with a shark attached to her arm after it bit her.

Pruette speculated that perhaps the change in temperature and season was responsible, noting that since summer is approaching, it has gotten very hot and supposedly sharks come closer to shore if the water is really hot.

[Photo Courtesy of Elsa Hoffmann/ Shutterstock]

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