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CNN Live At Daybreak

Another Shark Attack at Florida's New Smyrna Beach

Aired August 27, 2001 - 07:05   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: There has been yet another shark attack on Florida's east coast. The 18-year-old victim walked away from the attack, though. He had been boogie boarding at the time. The attack came Saturday off New Smyrna Beach. That's just south of Daytona Beach. There have been eight attacks in that area since last weekend.

CNN's Mark Potter now has the details for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARK POTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The one mile stretch of beach where most of the bites occurred remain closed to swimmers and surfers over the weekend, although own a few sharks were spotted from the air.

Susan Sharp (ph) and her sister hoped to videotape some sharks, but didn't see a thing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I saw more at Sea World than we did here.

POTTER: The local beach patrol says it's hard to find a shark now, although they're certainly out there all year long.

CAPT. ROB HORSTER, VOLUSIA COUNTY BEACH PATROL: I mean, you can go down there in a specific area, if the water is right, and sure, you could probably spot one. But you're going to be there for a couple of hours looking for one, just like these people that are attempting to catch a shark; nobody's caught one all week.

PALMER: The rest of the shore at New Smyrna Beach was crowded with bathers, even though a stiff wind kicked up the waves. Many people went in the water, although some said they were more cautious now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, and I wouldn't let my children go out there, or my grandchildren; not at all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know if I would dangle my feet over a surfboard.

PALMER: But surfers didn't seem to mind, and continued to ride the waves. Sharks are just part of the environment, they say. LEON JOHNSTON, SURFING ADVOCATE: We see the sharks. We run into the sharks. We land on them. We hit them. We don't jump over them, but sometimes they'll be in the water, we move out of their way.

POTTER: Local residents complain about what they see as a media feeding frenzy that briefly hurt local businesses.

CHRIS SLIZYK, BARTENDER: At first it slowed our business down, but now it brings out the curious. More people are coming out to see what's happening.

POTTER (on camera): Local surfers and beach patrol officials argue that what occurred here were not shark attacks in the intentional sense, but instead were shark bites, which were accidental.

HORSTER: The shark comes in, they bite somebody and then they swim off. It causes enough damage to do stitches; no one's ever lost their life out here.

POTTER (voice-over): But it did create lot of attention, and kept some out of the water -- but certainly not all.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

POTTER: This morning, we are watching a beautiful sunrise here at New Smyrna Beach. It's nice and quiet here, and because it was relatively quiet yesterday with no reported incidents, county officials say they will decide today whether to reopen the one-mile stretch of beach near the Ponce de Leon inlet, which was closed late last week and remained closed over the weekend -- back to you.

PHILLIPS: All right. Mark Potter, thank you so much.

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