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CNN Live At Daybreak

Central Florida Sees Rash of Shark Attacks

Aired August 20, 2001 - 07:02   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BRIAN NELSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: On Central Florida's Atlantic coast, recovering from six separate shark attacks over the weekend, as you mentioned earlier -- the attacks occurred in the New Smyrna Beach area.

And CNN's Susan Candiotti is there -- good morning, Susan.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Brian.

It's been an unnerving weekend, to say the least, for a lot of sunbathers over the weekend, with six more shark bites reported between Saturday and Sunday. We're on a stretch of beach here in New Smyrna Beach. Over my shoulder you can make out a sign that says speed limit 10 because this is an area where you can take your vehicle.

Just over here, you've got a beautiful shot of the sun coming up at this hour. At this hour, the beach always is closed to anyone who wants to go swimming. That changes in about an hour from now. And at about that time or some time in the morning, the authorities will be looking over the water to see how close or if there are any sharks feeding offshore.

There were six more, as we said, shark bites reported here over the weekend, none serious, none life threatening and all within about a 15 mile stretch just south of Daytona Beach down here in Volusia County and in this area of New Smyrna Beach.

Now, this county, Volusia County, Florida, has the highest number of shark attacks every year nationwide and why is that? Now, the experts say it's because it's an area popular for migrating sharks. There are a lot of bait fish located here and it's one of the best surfing areas around. So, the experts say, the more people that you get in any particular area and the more bait fish you have in an area, the more likelihood you're going to have additional shark bites here.

Now, adding to all of this, there was a surfing competition in this general area over the weekend adding to the number of surfers in the water. We're going to show you an amateur video that was taken on Sunday here which gives you some idea of how close those sharks were to shore. I don't know that we have that video ready to show you as yet. But the sharks are called black fins and spinners and on Sunday two of the victims were 17-year-old females and the attacks occurred within about a five mile stretch of each other. On Saturday, there were three more minor injuries reported. One of those injured was a surfer taking part in the surf competition and he said he saw the shark out there as he was making his way out to sea, but he said because he was so excited to be participating in the competition it didn't bother him.

So, again, as the evening goes on they're going to be taking a look around. Now, if you have the notion that there are many more shark attacks this year than last, that's not true. They say here in Volusia County there's just a difference of one more over the same period last year. But perhaps, the experts say, it seems like it's more dangerous because of that horrible attack that happened just last month in Pensacola, Florida way north of here to young Jessie Arbogast -- back to you Brian.

NELSON: All right, thank you very much.

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