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American Morning

Fatal Shark Attack in Virginia Beach Puts Black Mark on Holiday Weekend

Aired September 03, 2001 - 10:05   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.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: Millions of Americans are flocking to the beach this Labor Day, but along the east coast, a new wave is fear is flocking the shore there. From the Florida Keys to the rocky coastline of New England, beachgoers are talking about this weekend's fatal shark attack in Virginia. It' only the second fatal attack recorded this year. The other occurred in Brazil.

Now worldwide, there have been 49 shack attacks reported. In the United States, 38 of those. Some 28 have taken place in Florida.

For the latest on the tragedy now in Virginia Beach, we go to CNN's Patty Davis, who is out there on the beach -- Patty.

PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Colleen, The medical examiner in Virginia expected to do an autopsy on 10-year-old David Peltier. He was the one who was attacked and killed by a on Saturday here in Virginia Beach. Now investigation of the bite marks on his body is hoped to be able to determine what kind of shark that it was that bit him.

Now David was attacked while he was surfing with his father on Sunday, off of Sandbridge Beach. It's about 10 miles from where we are right now. He was out in about 150 feet of water -- about 150 feet out in about four feet of water. His father fought that shark off, carrying his son to the shore to rescuers. His family calls his father a hero.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My brother's hands -- he's got 12 stitches across his right hand from trying to pry the shark's mouth open, and he could do to get his son released from that shark. And he was a hero. My brother is a hero.

No one knows how to deal with something like this. It's terrible. It's like a bad dream, and nobody wants to be in it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAVIS: Now, the beaches are open today here in Virginia Beach. Helicopters, boats patrolling for anymore signs of sharks. Officials say that they have seen none. They've had no 911 calls since that attack on Saturday. Beachgoers told to stay close to shore, stay with large groups of swimmers, and swim only in areas that there are lifeguards. Those lifeguards are trained now to watch for signs of sharks -- Colleen.

MCEDWARDS: Any sense of how long these increases patrols are going to be kept up there?

DAVIS: That's a good question. They were heavily patrolled yesterday. They will continue the heavy patrols. They are starting to diminish that even somewhat today. This is the end of the Labor Day weekend. People will begin to head back home after today. Yesterday, 40 to 50 EMS divers were out, not in the water, but in boats. Today only 20 to 30, and in some sense, that's being scaled back a bit. But they do continue to watch this very closely -- Colleen.

MCEDWARDS: And, Patty, is it your sense that people are heeding the warnings and staying close out to shore, or staying out of the water altogether?

DAVIS: Yes, they absolutely are. We were just commenting actually you can see behind me, there are a lot of umbrellas set up and chairs set up, but there's nobody in them. In fact, yesterday we were down at Sandbridge Beach, where the actual attack occurred, and there were a lot of people sitting on the shore, taking in the sun, but not a lot of people coming in the water further than about their knees. So people are being very cautious.

MCEDWARDS: All right. CNN's Patty Davis, thanks very much -- Leon.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Colleen, as you know, much of this summer we've been talking to the experts about these shark attacks and they all say -- most of them say this is a media event. This is not really a big of a deal, because these kinds of things happen all of the time.

Joining us now to help us weed out the hype and the hysteria swirling around these so-called summer of the shark events, is Bob Heuter. He is a senior scientist and director at the Center For Shark Research at the Mote Marine Lab in Sarasota, Florida. He joins us now on the telephone.

Dr. Heuter, let me ask you about the numbers that we just moments ago. Some 49 attacks world-wide, 38 of them here in the U.S. You say for sure that those numbers are in line with what's normal?

DR. BOB HEUTER, DIR., CTR. FOR SHARK RESEARCH: Well, Leon, the numbers last year were 84 total attacks in the world, 53 in the United States, and summer's winding down here in the U.S. So, actually, we're either having an average year or a slightly less than average year.

HARRIS: That would probably surprise very many people who have been watching and reading press reports about what's been happening on the nation's beaches.

Florida has seen a ton of them, there's like 28, I think, we've seen in Florida. But, never before have we seen one in Virginia.

Have you ever seen an event like this happen that far north?

HEUTER: According to the statistics kept by the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida, this would only be the sixth shark attack in Virginia, Virginia state waters, and the first fatality. So it is extremely rare, there's no question about that.

HARRIS: And you don't make anything out of that? Or you don't consider that to be something unusual, or something that would tip you off as to some wider event taking place here?

HEUTER: Well, let's pause for a second and think about the family of this boy, because let's not just talk about numbers here, this was a tragedy. I have a 9-year-old boy myself, and the two attacks on the young children this summer were horrible.

But in the grand scheme of things, shark attack is a relatively random event. And other than the cluster of bites on surfers along Florida this past summer, which happens every summer, it's impossible to predict where it's going to happen. And although it's unusual and it's surprising, it's not impossible for an attack like this to occur in a place like Virginia.

HARRIS: Yes. One of the things that I think that kind of scares people, is the idea that sharks may be learning about where to go feed. In that, if they find that there are people in the water, that that's when they decide to come back in the numbers.

You're an expert on sharks. Is there anything like a shark word of mouth system or a shark internet, if you will, that they use to communicate and let each other know where there's actually people, or something in the water to eat?

HEUTER: No. There's no evidence of that. And we've got to put the "Jaws" fiction aside, and realize these animals are incredibly sensitive animals. They've been around for about 400 million years, and they're not keyed on people. They are really looking for other things, by and large, and it's only rarely that they truly attack a person in what appears to be a feeding attack. This could have been a single bite and release.

Whenever a child is bitten, it's very, very serious, and that's usually the problem in the case of the children. But, by and large, they're not looking for us. And the only thing that we have been able to correlate shark attack rates with is number of the people in the water. And think about this summer, the two attacks on the children, one was July 4th week and the other was Labor Day weekend, when so many people are in the water.

HARRIS: Now, while you were speaking just a moment ago, we were running some of the tape. Here it is, it's back up on the screen, the tape from the -- that was shot in Tampa, not very far from you. That time that all those sharks had swarmed on the shore, and in very shallow waters. From what I understand though, these may not be the same kind of sharks that may be swimming around the Virginia area. Can you explain that for us?

HEUTER: Now, we've got to keep in mind that there are many different species of sharks out there. The ones in Florida that were responsible for most of the bites are black tip sharks, such as seen in the video. This is a schooling species in our area in the summertime, very common, and they're relatively small fish eaters.

In Virginia, you're not going to have black tips. They would be fairly rare there. You're going to have a number of other species. And I wish I knew what species was responsible, we could probably learn more about that.

But, it's impossible to speculate exactly on what it was.

HARRIS: All right. Just, your professional opinion as far as shark behavior goes: Would it be wise to keep the beaches up there closed for the time being, or what?

HEUTER: I don't disagree with the option to open them. I think that the chances of this happening again are even rarer than the first time. And there' no evidence that there's such a thing as a rogue shark, for example, it gets a bite of a person and then wants to do it again. That's very rare in recorded history. So I don't disagree with the decision at all.

HARRIS: Dr. Bob Heuter, we thank you very much for the advice, for the insight this morning, and as well for your remembering the family of the boy who did die over the week. Thank you very much.

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