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American Morning

Shark Bite's Not a Shark Attack

Aired August 27, 2001 - 11:12   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Another person not quite as lucky as the people we've been talking about. A Florida teenager is the latest shark attack victim in that state. 18-year-old Ben Gibbs was nipped on the thigh and on the foot over the weekend at New Smyrna Beach. This was the eighth attack in that area in a week.

CNN's Mark Potter joins us now from New Smyrna Beach. He's got the very latest. Mark.

MARK POTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Leon. County officials still have not decide whether to reopen the one-mile stretch of beach that was closed down last week, and that remained closed over the weekend. We are told they just sent a helicopter up to look at the area, and they saw about 20 or 30 sharks out there. So, they will reevaluate again at about 1:00 this afternoon.

This is an area where six surfers were bitten two weekends ago during a surfing competition, another surfer was bitten later in the week. It's an area near an inlet, where local residents say there are lots of bait fish and lots of sharks all year long.

Now, yesterday the rest of the beaches in this area, and there are a lot of beaches beside the one closed down, were still open. They were pretty crowded, a lot of people were in the water, there were a lot of surfers out there. But some people said that they were indeed more cautious about going in the water. On Saturday, a young surfer, as you said, was bitten, not at all severely. Yesterday there were no incidents of anyone being bitten.

Now we're going to talk to Captain Rob Horster of the Volusia County Beach Patrol. Rob, you make the point over and over again, so that people understand, that these are not, in your view, shark attacks but shark bites. I want to hear what you mean by that.

CAPT. ROB HORSTER, VOLUSIA COUNTY BEACH PATROL: Well, in most of the cases that occur here we do have sharks that come in. When the water is murky and there's a lot of bait fish out there, the sharks will come in. And any time you have a surfing contest as large as it was, we had 200 extra legs and feet dangling, So, the shark will come around, they're looking for bait fish. And if they bite somebody, it's generally a case of mistaken identity.

POTTER: Now, some people laugh, and they say once you've been bitten, it doesn't matter whether it's an attack or a bite. But, it does make a difference, it's a critical difference, actually.

HORSTER: Well, exactly. I mean you go down to Australia, a shark attack -- my estimation of a shark attack is you've got three fatalities down in Australia from sharks. Here, 99.9 percent of the time it's a case where a shark comes in and they bite somebody and then they release. It's not like they grab a hold and they tear somebody's leg off, or something like that.

POTTER: Only one fatality in this area since the 1800s, right?

HORSTER: That's 1981, I think it was, yes. In most cases, all it requires is some stitches, maybe a little surgery. The gentleman that got bit on the hand this last weekend probably had surgery on his hand. But most of the time, that's what we see.

POTTER: Rob, thank you very much for your time. We appreciate it.

HORSTER: You're welcome.

POTTER: And, as we said, the officials here will take a look again at 1:00. We're waiting to hear if they reopen that beach. Back to you.

HARRIS: All right. Thanks. Mark Potter at New Smyrna Beach this morning. We appreciate it.

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