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CNN Live Sunday

Three Surfers Suffer Shark Bites During Competition in Florida

Aired August 19, 2001 - 16:01   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.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: It has happened again. In the past 36 hours, six people have been attacked by sharks off the Florida coast. Today's attacks, one involving a 17-year-old girl, happened just miles from a series of attacks yesterday near Daytona Beach. Three surfers were bitten during a competition at Ponce Inlet. A spectator caught a couple of the sharks on tape -- here you see. Two of the wounded were treated for cuts on their feat. The other underwent surgery for a hand injury,

Reporter Jennifer Morton from Central Florida News 13 joins us from New Smyrna. That's the scene of two other attacks -- Jennifer.

JENNIFER MORTON, NEWS 13 REPORTER: Well, Donna, here in Volusia County we've had three shark bites on area beaches here today. Now, all of those victims are in area hospitals. Their injuries are not life-threatening at this point, but that is an immense number of shark bites here for our area. So far, there's been six this weekend.

Now, today all the victims have been surfers. Two victims were teenage girls, and a third a 32-year-old man. All three were taken to area hospitals with injuries to their feet and legs.

Now, all of the attacks happened several miles from each other: two right here in New Smyrna Beach this afternoon, one just a few miles to the north. That one happened earlier this morning before noon. One of the victims' boyfriends helped to rescue her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT LOVE, SHARK VICTIM'S BOYFRIEND: ... caught a wave. She came off her board. She went to say something to me, and then she screamed, and she's like, she started yelling. And I jumped off my board, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to shore and went to her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORTON: Now as you can see, even in this late afternoon sun out here, folks are still out here at the beach. They're not letting the sharks scare them away. In fact, the beach patrol has told swimmers out here don't go out in the ocean any farther than knew deep for the rest of the day today to decrease the that chances that anyone else could be bitten by a shark -- Donna.

KELLEY: Jennifer, you say that they're telling them not to go out past knee-deep, but parts of the beach were closed earlier and yesterday. Are they still or is the beach completely open?

MORTON: Well, the normal procedure around here and what's happened in these particular cases is the beach patrol shuts down an area until they feel the sharks have vacated that area beach. Then they'll reopen them. So those that were closed yesterday and those other than this one we're at here today are now reopened, and of course, people can go back in knee-deep water here this afternoon.

KELLEY: Jennifer, is it normal to see sharks in this area?

MORTON: Well, it is normal for some bites to occur in our area. About 12 people were bitten in Volusia County last year, but this number, six in a weekend -- and I think we're up to 17 total this year -- our numbers that are not accustomed to lifeguards here in this area and they are concerned about it.

Normally it's bait fish in murky water and attacks by misinterpretation on the shark's part. But lifeguards here are now saying this number is getting a little high and they are concerned, and they're not really sure why.

KELLEY: What about Labor Day coming up? Are they taking any extra precautions there if extra tourists come in?

MORTON: Well, absolutely, we do expect big crowds here in this area over the Labor Day weekend. Lifeguards normally boost their patrols, and of course, I'm sure the lifeguards that will be out here and the beach patrol as well will be keeping their eyes, as they always do, open for sharks.

KELLEY: Jennifer, thanks. Jennifer Morton, who's with Central Florida News 13, appreciate it.

There have been a string of shark attacks this summer. Is it common or is there another reason behind these attacks? Joining us on the phone from Gainesville, Florida is George Burgess. He's a shark expert from the University of Florida.

Mr. Burgess, hello.

GEORGE BURGESS, SHARK EXPERT, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA: Hi there, Donna.

KELLEY: Are we seeing more shark attacks or are we kind of normal for the number?

BURGESS: Yeah, we're actually somewhat lower than we were last year, but of course, having a number of attacks over two days like this is quite unusual. Undoubtedly, part of the situation is the fact that there was a surfing competition there, which means there's more people out there. And of course, surfers are the No. 1 group that get grabbed because of their actions, are provocative.

KELLEY: You know, I was seeing earlier, Mr. Burgess, that the director for surfing competition said when he saw the three attacks that happened yesterday at the competition, he said that this inlet was known for sharks, but he said they were more aggressive than in the 30 years that he'd lived there.

Are they more aggressive currently? Do you have any updates on that?

BURGESS: Well, there's no way to determine whether things are aggressive or more aggressive, because that's not something you can measure. But shark attacks generally are situations involving hot, and the more people you get in the water, the more sharks you get in the water at one place, the more possibilities of these sorts of things. And certainly, when you have a surfing competition, that means you've got more people in the water. We know that much.

KELLEY: Are they attracted to people?

BURGESS: Not attracted to people. They're attracted to food items, which are normally schooling fishes. Reports from yesterday indicated that there was a lot of schooling fish in the water, and so probably there's a larger number of sharks in the area as a result of these schooling fishes. And throw in lots of surfers splashing their feet around and you're going to get these grabs on the leg.

KELLEY: Yeah. We saw some pictures from Anclote Key, Florida earlier, where it looked like there were pretty large schools of sharks. Is that the way they travel, and do you think that the number of sharks is higher this year than it has been? Are we seeing more of them?

BURGESS: Well, it's difficult to say. We do know that shark populations are increasing as a result of fishery management procedures, but they've got a long ways to go to get back to where they were.

KELLEY: Now what does that mean? Let me interrupt you, I'm sorry. What is fishery management? What is that? And when you say that, what does it mean?

BURGESS: Well, sharks over the last 10 to 15 years have been overfished as a result of too much fishing pressure by both commercial and sport fishermen. As a result of that, there are regulations in place, both at the federal and state level, to try to get sharks back up to a more normal level. So those regulations are beginning to kick in and we're starting to see more sharks than we had in the past. But we've got a long way to go to get them back to where they were in the 1970s.

So I rather doubt that the populations have had a huge increase. What we're seeing here, I think, are the sharks aggregating around schooling fishes. And if you throw humans into the water splashing around, as occurs in surfing competitions, you've got the increases -- increased chances of having attacks.

KELLEY: Well, real quickly then, you know, the beach patrol is telling some of these folks don't -- don't go in past knee-deep. Is that what you'd recommend? Is that still safe, for a person to go into the water knee-deep? BURGESS: I think you're OK doing that, and I think Volusia County's efforts are right on. I think you need to look at each area of the beach and keep an eye out. If there are sharks in the area, you want to pull people out. And if the sharks aren't in the area, you can allow them back in the water. I think that's a legitimate action.

KELLEY: All right, our shark expert, George Burgess from the University of Florida. Sure appreciate your time and information with us. Thanks.

BURGESS: Glad to be here, Donna.

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