Shark Bite Leaves Florida Boater In Critical Condition: Officials

FERNANDINA BEACH, FL — Officials said a man is recovering after being bitten by a shark while he was boating off of Amelia Island on Friday morning.

The Nassau County Sheriff's Office got a distress call at around 11 a.m. and a patrolling deputy from the Marine Unit located the boat, officials said. Sheriff Bill Leeper said the man had a severe bite on his right forearm, and had been bleeding heavily.

According to local media reports, the man was part of a group out fishing when they reeled in a shark, which lunged and got hold of his arm. The deputy boarded the boat, applied a tourniquet to the victim's arm to slow the bleeding, and then steered the group back to the ramp, Leeper said.

The Fernandina Beach Fire Rescue transported the man, who is reportedly a local charter boat captain, to a Jacksonville-area hospital via helicopter. Officials said he was in critical condition and had lost a lot of blood, but he is expected to recover.

The other people on the boat were reportedly uninjured.

This incident happened several weeks after a pair of shark attacks in Walton County, in the Florida Panhandle, injured a woman and two teenage girls.

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, more than 13 species of shark use the Sunshine State's nearshore waters and bays as nursery grounds for their pups.

Shark activity in Florida waters is at its peak from April through October, though the commission said humans are 30 times more likely to be struck by lightning in Florida than to be bitten by a shark.

Last year, there were 36 shark attacks in U.S. waters last year, more than half of the 69 bites reported worldwide, according to the University of Florida’s International Shark File, a scientific database of global shark attacks.