Just read the below posted article. My prayers go out for her Family.
SANDESTIN, Fla. - A 14-year-old girl died Saturday after a shark attacked her while she and a companion were swimming in the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida Panhandle, authorities said.
The teenagers were swimming on boogie boards about 100 yards offshore when they noticed a dark shadow in the water, authorities said. The other swimmer was not injured, Walton County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Donna Shank said.
Both girls swam to shore, and the victim was taken to a hospital where she was pronounced dead, Shank said. The girl was on vacation from Gonzales, La., but her name was not immediately released.
The most recent news report said that a surfer actually swam to the injured girl while the 8 foot bull shark circled. He saw most of her thigh was ripped off, yanked her up on the board and made his way to shore. The shark followed them in, snapped at her and he had to punch it a few times to keep it away. Unreal story of bravery. Any surfer knows that most attacks in the gulf are bull sharks, which are by far the most aggressive sharks in the ocean. They are down right mean, and they account for more human fatalities than any other shark.
The girls were 100 yards off shore. I wonder why. The breaks are usually must closer in on gulf beaches.
There was also a man found floating dead in Pensacola Bay yesterday. No name or cause of death, but reports are he was wearing only a set of “athletic shorts.”
The surfers down here are generally Good People. They save a bunch of lives every year when the rip currents kick up and the tourists are too dumb/stupid to stay out of water conditions they don’t understand.
I’ve seen other reports that the girls were as far as 250 yards from shore. Even if Ivan really did reshape the shoreline so it was reasonably shallow that far out, that’s too far out to go, IMO.
I’m guessing that the campground is about 1/4 mile or less from the swim course for the Sandestin Triathlon.
This is both very sad and a little scary. Bull sharks are bad, they are like dangerous, big, stray dogs- only worse since they have larger mouths and attack in their own element.
Realistically, the chances for shark attack is so low, but nonetheless, it is scary to think about. I had a 9 foot bull shark follow me for about five minutes while diving in shallow water in Belize at the Hol Chan Marine Reserve. It was the only time I have ever been really very scared in the water with sharks- it seemed to be paying particular attention to me. Eerie. Not good.
Sad news, I saw it in the paper this morning. I live about an hour away, in Pensacola. Reminds me of when Jesse Abrogast, a young kid from Louisianna was attacked, lost most of his blood supply, an arm, and part of his leg. This was on Pensacola beach at dusk. They managed to re-attach the arm and get enough blood back into his body to keep him alive, though he suffered brain damage and is still recovering to this day. His uncle, a triathlete who has done races in our area, went in after him and literally dragged the shark ashore by its tail.
We have a local training group that trains for the Santa Rosa Island Tri, and at the time I was also maintaining the race’s web site. You wouldn’t beleive the number of emails we got, some asking if they could have their money back (no), if the swim was still going to be in the Gulf (yes), and what we were going to do about the sharks (nothing). Here comes another round, I guess.
This is very sad indeed. Our family had just left Sandestin that morning after spending a week there. 1 day prior my children and I were playing about 1/4 mile from there. Earlier in the week I had done an OW swim in the ocean in the very spot she was attacked.
depends how much you understand about stats…
unfortunately, when you’re a swimmer/triathlete you are far less likely to drown because you know how to swim (or should anyway) and because you swim a lot more in open water, it increases the chances to get attacked by a shart.
depends how much you understand about stats…
unfortunately, when you’re a swimmer/triathlete you are far less likely to drown because you know how to swim (or should anyway) and because you swim a lot more in open water, it increases the chances to get attacked by a shart.
Franacois,
you don’t know what you just said here…My kids are dying of laughter!!!..Thanks Dude!
To clarify: A shart is a small, unintended defecation that occurs when one relaxes the anal sphincter to fart. Shart is a portmanteau word that blends shit and fart. Shart is used both as a noun and a verb. “I sharted at the shindig over the weekend and had to skedaddle back home to reno the undies.” In loose slang use, shart also occurs as a transitive verb: “I sharted my pants.”
One farts too forcefully so that a small piece of excrement is expelled. It may stick to your underpants or stay lodged, caught—as it were—within the constrictive grip of contracting anal sphincters. Amateur fecologists recommend special caution when forcing flatulence, especially if one has not defecated in the last ten hours.
Here is a posted list to prevent shark atacks: Do not wear jewelry in the water. Sharks and even barracudas love to bite at sparkly things Do not swim at twilight or at night. That is a shark’s normal feeding time. Get out of the water if you see schools of fish jumping. They jump to get away from a shark that’s feeding on them! Pay attention to your surroundings! Uneven tan lines - you know those farmer tans where the shirt sleeve and socks leave the skin white? Those parts of your skin look like bait compared to the rest of you! The color yellow - called by shark attack experts “Yum Yum Yellow”. The color black also>looks like a baby seal.Don’t stray from the group that’s in the water. Menstruating women - blood is blood, and sharks can smell a drop of blood in water from many miles away … keep that in mind before entering the water. Urinating children - any bodily fluid in the water is like the smell of apple pie wafting through the kitchen - the shark’s kitchen - and everybody knows there’s plenty of such fluids in the water at any public beach, and not just from kids either. Thank od there are no sharks in the pool! A drop off next to a shallow area - sharks just love to do their grocery shopping off the shelf - how close are you to the edge of the shelf can make you a real bargain! Swimming alone? Did you know even a good swimmer looks like an injured fish to a shark? We’re not aquatic creatures, you know. Think you’re safe in shallow water? Most attacks take place in waist deep water or less. Remember that shark-eye view - so many legs, so little time … Sometimes there’s no reason at all that makes a shark aggressive - one case of a grandmother walking her grandson along the edge of the beach saw a dark form headed straight for them, lifted her grandson in the air, only to see a four foot shark beach itself in an attempt to bite him. As they continued their walk on the dry area of beach, several more sharks followed them 200 yards up the beach.
funny you say that about the pool… About a month ago there was a shark living in a large artificial habitat(pool) and they had to remove it and release it back into the wild because it was eating other sharks… it killed 4 other sharks. And also francois the mis-spelling of shark made me laugh hysterically aswell. This also made it funnier for me because it happened to 2 of my friends.
As a related note, my brother-in-law went diving in Belize a couple years back on one of those group dives. As the boat stopped at the dive spot, a woman on the boat asked, “are there sharks here?”
The dive leader (or whatever they’re called) said, “put your finger in the water.” She did. He then said, “now put it in your mouth.” She did. He said, “does it taste like salt?” She nodded. He said, “then there are sharks.”