Ok so this has been debunked as a dolphin or photoshop...It still makes me think whenever I get the urge to surf...
prisoner6
Posted on 06/25/2005 2:19:19 PM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
A 14-year-old girl died Saturday after a shark attacked her while she and a companion were swimming in the Gulf of Mexico, authorities said.
The teenagers were swimming on boogie boards about 100 yards offshore when they noticed a dark shadow in the water, authorities said.
"One of the swimmers was bitten. It was the lower portions of her body," said Walton County Sheriff's spokeswoman Donna Shank. The other swimmer was not injured.
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 Louisiana, but her name was not immediately released.
The attack happened near the Camping on the Gulf Holiday Travel Park, about 45 miles east of Pensacola on the Florida Panhandle.
Patrick O'Neill, the campground's general manager, refused to comment.
Authorities closed about 20 miles of beaches to swimming shortly after the attack. It's the height of the summer tourism season along the coast and the beaches were packed with people.
"This doesn't happen very often at all — very, very seldom," said Mike McKee, front desk supervisor at the nearby Hilton Sandestin Beach Resort and Spa.
Florida had the largest number of documented shark attacks worldwide in 2003 with 30, according to statistics compiled by the American Elasmobranch Society and the Florida Museum of Natural History. There were 12 attacks off the coast of Florida last year.
I went a long ways out when I went to Sanibel. I mostly did it because I wanted to see how far I could go without having the water be too high.
I was rather amazed.
I did wonder if there could have been an animal under there ready to get me though.
My feet are ugly but they aren't THAT ugly.
It saved his life.
Moments later another swimmer was hit in a shark attack. Luckily for my friend it just brushed him...took some skin off and made him bleed a bit.
Amazingly enough he now lives in Duck NC and goes to the beach every day. Always tries to talk me into going down there with him, even though he's had several other encounters or had warnings in the bay where he swims.
I like the Outer Banks but I confine my swimming to the hotel pools...sigh
prisoner6
Viro, is a bacterial that you get in inland bays. kinda like the the bite of a Recluse spider, it rots your skin and it falls off. Then you die.
I live in Walton county. In fact, I live less than 2 miles from where this attack happened and was out on the water most of the day today. I am a scuba instructor by trade and have made over 5000 dives in this area. Sharks, OH YA!! Loads of 'em. Within the last 5 years I can't remember going diving and not seeing any. They are most all Bull sharks around here and they do have a nasty reputation as being 1 of the top 3 sharks most likely to attack. We've even hand fed many during our dives. It's all a matter of odds when it comes to shark attacks. ANYWHERE. With no recordered attacks in this area it was only a matter of time for it to happen. I could go on and on with shark stories. It'll be interesting to see what it's going to do to our tourist driven economy around here.
At least when you are diving you can see what is in the water. When you are swimming, you can't do that.
100 yards offshore?! That's insane. Last year my brother and I got caught in a ripcurrent for the first time. Although without boogie boards, we were only 30 yards or so out and it seemed like a thousand miles to get back.
i was wondering if that's anywhere near where you go! Yikers.
good grief.
I have never heard of it.....how common is it? What are symptoms...just rotting skin?
250 yard out? That is way far and I don't believe it.
Seals, I will be in the condo in a week and definitely will look for them. Haven't ever seen one though.
a stingray won't kill you.
And man of wars aren't exactly common, unless you are in Australia.
Stay out of Texas gulf. True a Sting ray will not kill you, but if you are 40 miles south of a hospital, you may wish you were dead.
Man of wars not commmon? Give me a quarter apiece for all I can send you and I will retire next week.
Not picking a fight. I think we are are on the same side here.
Ok so this has been debunked as a dolphin or photoshop...It still makes me think whenever I get the urge to surf...
prisoner6
We were in DEstin in May and in June. The visibility was incredible, like the caribbean. I don't remember it being better.
Odd, the attack was not at dusk or dawn, that is when they usually attack. We don't swim at those times anymore.
yep, right down the beach.
That would be over 600 feet. How is the beach there?
"You are very very bad!"
I'll second that. But perhaps Rummy is very very bad if he said that to the big fat druken leninist just after the big fat drunken Leninist ask if it was time for him to resign.
I wonder if a six ton twenty eight foot great white would even consider biting into that pigs carcass. Probably fine it totally revolting.
Great book.
(The movie "Jaws" was loosely based on these events.)
There is no doubt that is a dolphin (very smooth dolphin figure, fin is not a shark fin, the tail), but admittedly, freakly still.
you get it if you have a cut on your skin, oyster shell anything that opens the skin. Untreated, it gets red and swollen, like two days out, if untreated with antibotics, you are in trouble. do a google search on it. I do not know the real name.
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