Florida shark attack leaves man in critical condition | Florida

A shark attack off Florida’s Atlantic coast left a man with a “serious bite to his right arm” Friday, authorities said, leaving him in critical condition due to blood loss.

The Nassau County Sheriff’s Office Marine Unit, which was patrolling off Fernandina Beach near the Florida-Georgia border, said it received a distress call from a boat Friday and applied a tourniquet to stop the bleeding.

“The sheriff then piloted the boat to the Dee Dee Bartels boat ramp, where Fernandina Beach firefighters were waiting,” the sheriff’s office said in a social media post. The man, whose name has not been released, is expected to recover, authorities said.

Earlier this month, three people – a woman and two teenage girls – were injured in attacks on Florida’s Gulf Coast. Authorities warned swimmers that baitfish moving close to shore this time of year could contribute to attacks.

Florida has a system of flags to warn swimmers – purple for the presence of dangerous marine life and red to indicate “high-risk conditions.”

Authorities are also making greater efforts to educate the public. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says there is no guaranteed way to avoid 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 commission’s Brent Winner said on the agency’s website.

The commission also says that “shark bites still remain very rare” and that people are 30 times more likely to be struck by lightning in Florida than to be bitten by a shark.

An increase in shark bites is attributed more to an increase in the number of people in the water than to more sharks; shark populations are estimated to be down 25 to 30 percent from what they were thirty years ago.

“Humans pose a far greater danger to sharks than the reverse,” says the commission’s opinion, which places the relative number of humans killed each year by sharks against the number of sharks killed by humans. between 10 and 100 m.

“To ensure our own safety and the survival of these fascinating fish, people need to become more shark aware and better informed about sharks and related issues,” he noted.

Yet Florida leads the world in the number of shark bites, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History’s annual shark attack report. Florida recorded 16 unprovoked shark bites last year, 44 percent of the U.S. total and 23 percent worldwide, but no deaths were reported.