While people in Florida enjoy themselves out in the water, they’re are also aware of what happened along the North Carolina coast where 2 teenagers were severely injured by a shark.”
The news that a pair of people each lost an arm in the attack is not lost on some people swimming in the gulf, including Brian Franklin and his son who were out surfing.
Franklin said, “I definitely keep and eye out and make sure other than that we just try and stay as shallow as possible so nothing like that happens.”
A shark expert at the Florida Aquarium said, as more people enter the oceans, there is the potential to be a shark bite victim.
Eric Hovland said, “Millions of people go the beaches and we will probably see dozens of these kinds of accidents throughout a year.”
Hovland stressed, that despite what people think, sharks are not interested in humans.
Hovland added, “What typically happens is a shark does a test bite, they want to figure out what is that, they don’t have hands so they go “chomp”, not what I wanted, sometimes that bite is bigger when the shark is bigger and that’s when we have unfortunate accidents.”
Deanna Wilson and her two young sons are careful, but not missing out on the surf and sun.
Wilson said, “Its a little scary when you sit back and think about it when you go out there but it doesn’t bother me enough to not go into the water.”
While the attacks in North Carolina are fresh on the minds of beach goers, experts say they just need to be aware of their surroundings while out in the water.
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