Teenage Boy Bitten By Shark in Florida

[Madame Butterfly 0]

Updated: 08:39 AM EDT

Teenage Boy Bitten by Shark in Florida

Second Attack Comes Three Days After Girl Was Killed

By BILL KACZOR, AP

 

 

 

AP

The twin attacks prompted authorities to hand out safety literature about sharks.

 

 

CAPE SAN BLAS, Fla. (June 28) -- A 16-year-old boy who lost a leg following the second shark attack in three days along the Florida Panhandle was in critical condition Tuesday and doctors were hoping he hadn't suffered any brain damage from the blood loss.

 

Craig Adam Hutto, of Lebanon, Tenn., survived the attack Monday but his leg was amputated.

 

Dr. Reed Finne, a cardiovascular surgeon at Bay Medical Center in Panama City, said Tuesday Craig's leg suffered irreparable damage to blood vessels and nerves between the hip and knee, as well as to most of the surrounding muscle.

 

Finne said it was too soon to tell if Craig suffered any brain damage from blood loss. In 2001, a 9-year-old Mississippi boy, Jesse Arbogast, suffered severe brain damage from blood loss when a shark tore off his arm as he swam near Pensacola.

 

''We're hopeful. He's young, he's healthy. He should be OK, but he's still sick,'' Finne said of Hutto.

 

Hutto was fishing in waist-deep water about 60 feet from shore with his brother and a friend on Monday when the shark grabbed him in the right thigh, nearly severing the leg, said Capt. Bobby Plair of the Gulf County Sheriff's Office.

 

Three days before the attack on Hutto and about 80 miles away near Destin, 14-year-old Jamie Marie Daigle died from her injuries after her leg was mutilated by a bull shark.

 

The attack on Hutto was witnessed by Karen Eaker, 42, of Horn Lake, Miss.

 

''Within five seconds it was obvious there was something wrong,'' Eaker said. ''We had heard the word 'shark' and then we saw the red water and the tug-of-war going on between the brother and the shark.''

 

Nearby, Bill Pascoe, 37, of Jacksonville, was scooping up shells with his 5-year-old son when they heard a commotion. As he got closer, he saw blood in the water.

 

''One man jumped in and kind of looked like he had it in a head lock and was punching it on the head to get him to let loose,'' Pascoe said.

 

A doctor who happened to be nearby began treatment once the teen was ashore. He was then taken to Panama City's Bay Medical Center, where the leg was amputated. Craig's family members, including the brother who was with him in the surf, declined comment at the hospital.

 

Gulf County's Board of County Commissioners issued a mandatory closure for beaches in the county until midday Tuesday. Destin-area beaches reopened Sunday.

 

The number of shark attacks rise in the summer because the animals come closer to shore to search for food, said John Tyminski, a senior biologist with the Center for Shark Research at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota.

 

''I don't think there is any reason to come to a conclusion that this is strange,'' Tyminski said of the two recent attacks.

 

Daigle, of Gonzales, La., had been had been swimming with a friend about 100 yards from shore in neighboring Walton County when a shark bit her in the leg. Paramedics and an air ambulance crew were unable to revive her.

 

Florida averaged more than 30 attacks a year from 2000 to 2003, but had only 12 last year, said George Burgess, curator of the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida in Gainesville. He attributed the drop to the four hurricanes that hit Florida last year, keeping residents and visitors away from beaches.

[Kor37 9]

Sheesh! Tough year for Florida!

[Takara_Soong 4]

Tips to Avoid Shark Attacks

 

• Always stay in groups, and do not wander too far from shore.

 

• Avoid being in the water during darkness or twilight hours, the time when sharks are most active.

 

• Do not enter the water if bleeding from an open wound or if menstruating.

 

• Avoid wearing shiny jewelry—the reflected light resembles the sheen of fish scales.

 

• Avoid waters with known effluents or sewage and those being used by sport or commercial fishers.

 

• Use extra caution in murky water.

 

• Avoid uneven tanning and brightly colored clothing—sharks see contrast particularly well.

 

• Refrain from excessive splashing and do not allow pets, which move and swim erratically, in the water.

 

• Exercise caution when occupying the area between sandbars or near steep dropoffs—these are favorite hangouts for sharks. Do not enter the water if sharks are known to be present, and evacuate the water if sharks are seen while there.

 

• Finally, don't harass a shark if you see one.

 

© George H. Burgess, International Shark Attack File

Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida

[LordOfTheBorg 1]

This is one of the reasons i will never, ever go swimming in the ocean..

[A l t e r E g o 9]

This is one of the reasons i will never, ever go swimming in the ocean..

335504[/snapback]

 

 

Staying out of their habitat is best protection of all.

[Madame Butterfly 0]

This is one of the reasons i will never, ever go swimming in the ocean..

335504[/snapback]

 

Some friends and I went to Myrtle Beach after school let out.

 

We got there at night, checked in at our hotel, put on our suits and ran down to the beach.

 

We were wave surfing, body surfing. Which was much better than doing it on a Great Lake, let me tell you.

 

Then these nice marines came up and asked "do you know why the helicopters are flying over?"

 

We said "manuvers"

 

No, they were looking for sharks.

 

Now whether or not this was a lie or the truth, I decided right then and there body surfing would always be done on a rough day at Lake Huron than in the Atlantic. :unsure:

[MrPsychic 1]

If attacked, the best way to fight off the shark is to aim for the eyes, nose and gills. Sharks aren't used to their prey fighting back.

[M_5 0]

Something tells me that business at beaches along the atlantic coast is going to pick up,after this second attack in the gulf.

This is really tragic.

I wonder what's prompting these attacks?