A man was fishing in Florida when a shark bit him, severely injuring his arm, officials said. The man, who is in his 40s, was on a boat at the time of the attack, which unfolded around 11 a.m. Friday at West Rock near the port of Fernandina, which is north of Jacksonville near the Florida-Georgia border, Nassau County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Alicia Tarancon said. A responding deputy boarded the man’s boat and applied a tourniquet to his right arm to slow the bleeding, Tarancon said. The deputy then drove the boat to shore, where rescue crews were waiting, Tarancon said. The victim was airlifted to a hospital in critical condition, Tarancon said. He’s expected to recover, Tarancon added.
This attack comes after a well-known surfer and lifeguard was killed by a shark in Hawaii on Sunday. Tamayo Perry, 49, had been a lifeguard with Honolulu Ocean Safety since 2016. He was a local surf coach and competed for years in the Pipeline Master Trials, according to his official bio on his coaching site. Perry appeared in the 2002 movie “Blue Crush,” along with episodes of “Hawaii Five-O” and “The Bridge,” according to IMDb. “The world knew Tamayo as a surfer and an actor, but to those who knew him best, he was a man of deep faith … now taken too soon,” his wife, Emilia Perry, told ABC News in an exclusive interview. “I feel so upset and devastated. But I also have a weird calmness in my heart knowing that he’s in a better place.”
A shark bit a Florida fisherman who was washing his hands off the side of a boat in Everglades National Park. The man reported the shark attack to officials with the National Park Service on Friday morning, and the park ranger who treated the man said that the injury “was consistent with a shark bite,” according to a statement from an official with Everglades and Dry Tortugas National Parks. The attack is “extremely uncommon” for the Everglades National Park according to officials. “The individual stated he had been fishing from a boat in Florida Bay and was washing his hands in the water when the bite occurred,” the statement said.
Video of the attack, which a National Parks official confirmed depicts the incident reported, shows a shark leaping out of the water to bite a fisherman’s hand. The shark appears to pull the man off the boat into the murky water, after which other fishermen rush to pull the injured angler back into the boat. Miami Dade Fire Rescue transferred the man to a local hospital, where he was treated for his injuries. The fisherman who took the video declined to comment on the incident. Allyson Gantt, chief of communications and public affairs for Everglades and Dry Tortugas National Parks, said that the shark in the video was likely a bull shark.
The incident occurred in Florida Bay, a large shallow-water lagoon in southern Florida where freshwater from the Everglades mixes with saltwater from the Gulf of Mexico, according to the University of Florida. “While shark bites are extremely uncommon in Everglades National Park, we always recommend visitors take caution around park wildlife,” the statement noted. According to the National Wildlife Federation, bull sharks can travel across both fresh and saltwater bodies. Other Florida fishermen have reported similar interactions with aggressive bull sharks in the area.
Yanni Melissas, a charter boat captain and owner of Boca Grande Fishing Charters, told ABC News that bull sharks sometimes target the fish caught by anglers. “When a fish is on the line, it gives a chance for a shark that might normally not be able to catch it the ability to catch up with it and attack it, especially if the fish has been on the line for a long time; it can get tired,” Melissas said. He added that a “few times a year” during his fishing trips, sharks can eat the fish hooked by anglers before they can fully reel it in. On other occasions, sharks “will hide underneath the boat” in wait for when the fishermen release their catches. “It’s a really scary situation to have a fish as big as you, bigger than you, 150 pounds or 175 pounds, just be devoured at the boat by one or multiple bull sharks that are fighting,” Melissas said.
A college student on the road to recovery is one of two men to be bitten by sharks in Florida in less than 36 hours. Kevin Blanco, a 20-year-old from Miami-Dade County, was spearfishing with friends in Marathon on Thursday afternoon when the attack occurred, according to a statement shared by the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO). Blanco was about 70 feet underwater at the time, according to CBS affiliate WFOR-TV and ABC affiliate WPLG. He said he was bitten twice on his left leg by what he believes was a 500-lb. bull shark, WFOR-TV reported. “I just got blindsided…I don’t really remember the pain, but I remember the pressure and the force that he hit my leg with,” Kevin said, per WFOR-TV and NBC affiliate WTVJ. “It felt like I got hit by an F-150.”
Friend Danny Maduro, who witnessed the attack, told WTVJ that he “was in major shock,” but quickly “went into survival mode” to help his injured friend. In an interview from his hospital bed, Blanco told Good Morning America that after getting back on the boat he “took off my weight belt [and] tied it across my leg as a tourniquet.” Meanwhile, another individual called 911, according to WPLG. The caller begged the dispatcher to send someone out as fast as possible, saying that the victim was “bleeding really bad” and had “a really big gash” in his thigh.” Kevin was transported via private boat to the Sunset Grille & Raw Bar, and later airlifted to Jackson South Medical Center in Miami for treatment, according to the MCSO’s statement. The Trauma Star helicopter landed on the Seven Mile Bridge in order to complete the rescue, the sheriff’s office added.
Doctors said Blanco is lucky that the bite missed a major artery, which was inches away from the bite, WFOR-TV reported. “It was a situation that could have turned very very bad,” said Kevin’s father, Omar Blanco, per WPLG. Omar also praised Maduro for his efforts to save Kevin’s life. “I hardly know Danny, who I consider a hero,” said Kevin’s father, who is also a captain with Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, according to WFOR-TV. “What he did was miraculous.”
Less than 36 hours later, a 35-year-old man was bitten in the foot by a shark while fishing off a dock on Flagship Drive in Summerland Key, according to a separate statement from the MCSO. “The shark was reportedly out of the water and on the dock when it bit the angler,” the sheriff’s office said on Saturday. The second victim was also flown to Jackson South Medical Center in Miami via Trauma Star following the bite. Additional information about his condition is not known.
Shocking video captured the moment a fisherman was bitten by a shark that pulled him overboard into the murky waters of Florida’s Everglades Friday — seconds after he shrugged off his friend’s warning. The frightening ordeal unfolded after the man went to rinse his hands in the water as his pal cautioned him of the dangers. “I wouldn’t put your hands in there,” a person off-camera says. “Ah, two seconds won’t do anything,” the man replies as he bends over the side of the boat and dips his left hand and then his right hand into the water. Almost instantly, a shark chomps onto the fisherman’s right hand and drags him head-first into the water as he screams, according to the video. The shark releases its grip and the man tries to grab onto the boat with his injured hand, leaving a bloody handprint behind, the footage shows.
The man was pulled head-first into the murky waters by the shark. “Get him! Get him! Get him!” the friend screams in a panic as another person on board yells, “Oh my God.” The man is able to get himself back onto the boat with the help of his friends. His friend who caught the attack on camera, Michael Russo, said the group sped back to the dock and park rangers came to the victim’s aid. “He was rushed back to the dock and the Park Rangers were a lifesaver (literally),” Russo wrote, according to the Florida Instagram account. “He was airlifted to the hospital and is in the best care possible.”
The National Park Service said the man was airlifted to Jackson South Medical Center by Miami-Dade Fire Rescue personnel, according to Local 10 News. The extent of the man’s injuries is unclear. Russo shared the video as a warning to others. “Today was one of the scariest days on the water I have ever had,” he said. “…After releasing a snook, Nick washed his hands in the water and was immediately bit by a large [lemon] shark.” Russo said there was no chum or blood in the water, but the shark still attacked. “The sharks are no joke in the Everglades and the warnings about keeping your hands out of the water are not an exaggeration,” he wrote. “Please take this as a lesson and keep your hands out of the water because this could have been prevented.”
Source: ABC News, CBS, WFOR-TV, WPLG, WTVJ, Local 10 News
