- Two shark bite incidents occurred within 90 minutes in Florida on Friday.
- The attack left two people in critical condition and one in stable condition.
- Florida consistently ranks among the top states in the world for shark bites.
Three people were injured in two shark bite incidents just 90 minutes apart on two separate beaches on Florida’s Gulf Coast on Friday.
Two people are in critical condition and the third is in stable condition, South Walton Fire Chief Ryan Crawford said at a news conference.
In the first incident, a 45-year-old woman “suffered severe trauma to the abdominal and pelvic area and an amputation of her lower left arm,” Crawford said. The woman, who had been swimming with her husband just past the first sandbar, was taken by helicopter to a local hospital for treatment, Crawford said.
The second attack happened when two girls, ages 15 to 17, were swimming with friends in waist-deep water just inside the first sandbar. One of the victims suffered “severe injuries to the upper and lower extremities” and the other suffered “flesh wounds to the legs,” Crawford said.
While the risk of being attacked by a shark is extremely low, Florida, known for its beaches and year-round sunshine, consistently leads the world in shark bites.
According to a comprehensive database of known shark attacks compiled by staff at the Florida Museum of Natural History, there were 69 unprovoked shark bites and 22 unprovoked bites worldwide in 2023.
Florida’s 16 cases in 2023 represent 44% of the U.S. total and 23% of unprovoked bites worldwide.
Volusia County on Florida’s east coast (which includes the famous Daytona Beach and New Smyrna Beach) has been dubbed the “shark bite capital of the world,” with 343 recorded shark bites from 1882 to 2023.
In an interview with Business Insider last year, Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Shark Research Program, said in an email that a number of factors have come together to make a shark attack off the coast of Volusia more likely.
The area was packed with mullet and menhaden fish to feed on, and plenty of good waves to surf. The churning water made it hard for the sharks to see, and occasionally, sharks chasing prey in the murky water will accidentally bite an arm or leg that’s “dangling” from a surfboard, Naylor said.
Most attacks in Florida are caused by blacktip and bull sharks.
September is the most common month for shark attacks in FloridaAccording to ISAF statistics, the highest chance of being bitten is in Volusia County between 2pm and 3pm.
