Volusia, Brevard by far Florida's most dangerous for shark bites. But just how dangerous?
Jim WaymerCameron Robbins leapt from a sunset cruise in the Bahamas to a horrific end.
While on a high school graduation trip, he reportedly took the dare. Classmates watched as the Baton Rouge, Louisiana teen briefly treaded water, then vanished into the darkness. A viral video viewed by millions showed his tragic last seconds and what appeared just before to be the flash of a large shark.
The harsh nature of such tragedies is inescapable but the risk infinitesimally low: You have a 1 in 4.3 million chance of dying in a shark attack. You're much more likely to lose your life to lightning, a falling vending machine, being hit by a car on your way to the beach, or just drowning. So despite all the yearly shark hoopla that surrounds Discovery Channel's "Shark Week," as with the infamous Summer of the Shark in 2001, this and last year's shark bites aren't statistically anything beyond the norm.
Tell that to the three people injured in back-to-back shark attacks in waters off Florida's Gulf Coast on Friday, June 7. Two of the victims — an adult woman and a juvenile girl — were airlifted to hospitals. One lost half her arm.
According to Walton County Sheriff's Office:
- A 45-year-old woman lost her lower left arm in the first attack, shortly before 1:15 p.m. in Watersound, about 15 miles up the Gulf Coast from Panama City Beach.
- Two people were injured in the second incident at Inlet Beach between south Walton and Bay Counties. The victims, ages 15 to 17, were in waist-deep water about four miles from the first attack.
- Lulu Gribbin, 15, had her right leg amputated to the middle of her thigh, and her hand is missing after the shark bit it off, her mother told media after the attack.
- The incidents mark the first shark-related bites in Florida in 2024, according to trackingsharks.com.
Just a few weeks after those attacks, on June 23 legendary pro surfer, Hollywood actor and Honolulu Ocean Safety lifeguard Tamayo Perry, 49, died from multiple shark bites while surfing during a break from his lifeguard duties. Perry's on-camera appearances included the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Blue Crush and the CBS series Hawaii Five-0.
Then five days after the Honolulu attack, on June 28, Nassau County authorities reported that a man in his 40s was critically injured in a shark incident, while boating near Fernandina Beach. The victim, who was not identified, was hospitalized in critical condition after sustaining a severe bite to his right arm, Nassau County Sheriff Bill Leeper told the Jacksonville Florida Times-Union. The man was airlifted to a local hospital where he was expected to recover.
Then on Independence Day, two people were bitten by a shark on South Padre Island, a popular tourist destination on the Southeast Texas Coast. Two other people experienced shark encounters but were not seriously injured, Texas Parks and Wildlife stated in a news release.
Volusia and Brevard by far riskiest in Florida for shark bites
Despite this year's attacks in other counties, Brevard and Volusia are by far Florida's highest-risk counties for shark attacks, or "encounters," if not most of the world.
None have been reported yet this year in Brevard, while Volusia has reportedly seen four, including one on the Fourth of July and one the day after in New Smyrna Beach.
Most Florida shark bites are "nip-and-runs" from small sharks in the surf that mistake a foot for a fish. And east Central Florida is the perfect storm for more shark bites: ever-more people and surfers in the same paths as migratory and resident sharks.
But again, the odds of being bitten remain extremely low.
Since 1882, Brevard has only had 158 confirmed shark attacks, according to University of Florida’s International Shark Attack File. Only one was a suspected fatality, which was never 100% confirmed: an 8-year old boy who died in 1934 after being bit by something just offshore in the Melbourne Beach area.
Only Volusia County has had more shark attacks than Brevard in the same 142-year period — 351 attack. One, in August 1981, was fatal, after a 17-foot catamaran capsized in rough seas three miles off Ormond Beach. Two young couples clung to the boat all night, then tried to swim to shore at dawn. As they began to swim, Christi Wapniarski, 19, screamed she’d been bitten and, “Swim to me. I think I’m going to die!," the United Press International reported. By the time her boyfriend and another of the survivors reached her, she was dead, according to media reports.
Story continues below graphic:
There was an increase in unprovoked shark attacks worldwide and an uptick in fatalities in 2023 compared to the previous year, according to University of Florida’s International Shark Attack File, a scientific database of global shark attacks.
Provoked attacks are when humans intentionally approach a shark or swim in an area where bait is being used to lure fish.
UF confirmed 69 unprovoked bites in 2023 and 22 provoked bites. There were 10 fatalities, including two in the United States; four in Australia; and one each in the Bahamas, Egypt, Mexico and New Caledonia. Although higher than the previous five-year average of 63 attacks, the data remain consistent with long-term trends, the UF researchers said.
“This is within the range of the normal number of bites, though the fatalities are a bit unnerving this year,” Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Museum of Natural History’s shark research program, said in February, when the museum released it's 2023 shark bite statistics, their most recent data.
Worldwide, shark attacks have been increasing each decade, according to the Shark Attack File, mostly because of more people in the water. But there is no indication of any change in the per capita rate of attack. Globally, 42% of bites involved surfers, with swimmers and waders a close second at 39%.
The United States had 36 unprovoked attacks, accounting for 52% of incidents worldwide. Of those, two — one in California and another in Hawaii — were fatal. As usual, Florida had more shark bites than any other state, with 16 attacks.
Again, the risk of dying from a shark attack is only 1 in 4.3 million, UF's shark researchers estimate.
To put that in perspective, UF also cites the following risks of dying by other means:
- Lightning: 1 in 79,746
- Drowning: 1 in 1,134
- Car accident: 1 in 84
- Flu: 1 in 63
- Hospital infections: 1 in 38
While the overall risk of being bitten by a shark is extremely low, the highest rate of shark bites in Florida is by far in Volusia, Brevard and Indian River counties. In 2012 research paper, Raid Amin, a professor of at University of West Florida's math and statistics department, found east Central Florida's rate of shark attacks was 9-fold the rest of Florida.
Amin analyzed the shark bites with software typically used to identify geographic cancer clusters and other disease hotspots.
That said, there are things people can do — or not do — to lower a low risk to even closer to zero. Swim in groups, not when it's dark, not when there are tons of baitfish jumping in the water, or near lots of surf fishermen, for example.
About 1 in 3 of Florida's shark attacks happen in August and September. Those two months bring massive schools of mullet, anchovies, herrings, and sardines migrating along Brevard County and other east Central Florida beaches. Blacktip, blacknose, spinners and sandbar sharks follow by the hundreds to pick off their meals.
Some speculate the murkier water near Indian River Lagoon inlets could play a role: it's where the prey is and the cloudier water can confuse sharks.
But scientists say sharks are way more scared of ― and in danger from ― us than we are of them.
"They're all very, very skittish," said Toby Daly-Engel, an assistant professor and shark researcher at Florida Institute of Technology. "Sharks are very, very cautious animals. They'd rather scavenge something dead than hunt," she added.
"They're more like wolves, very cautious," Daly-Engel said. "We are not their food."
Contributing: Anthony Robledo, Collin Bestor and Cheryl McCloud
Contact Waymer at (321) 261-5903 or jwaymer@floridatoday.com.