Volusia reports 1st possible shark bite of the year off Daytona Beach orlandosentinel.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from orlandosentinel.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
TravelAwaits
Apr.30.2021
A paddleboarder was bitten by a shark Friday in the first reported bite of 2021 in Volusia County. The bite occurred in New Smryna Beach in Volusia County, Florida, home to Daytona Beach and the recognized shark-bite capital of America.
The 64-year-old local resident was bitten on the foot while sitting on her paddleboard in about 8 to 10 feet of water off the coast of New Smyrna Beach, according to officials with the Volusia County Beach Safety Ocean Rescue.
The Orlando Sentinel reported the woman was transported for medical treatment as a precaution. The marks on her foot appeared to be a shark bite, although the shark was not actually seen, officials said.
New Smyrna Beach is consistently the world leader in shark bites, most of which are minor. The bites result when sharks feeding near Ponce Inlet mistake surfers or swimmers for baitfish.
While sharks are scary to some people, the bigger threat is rip currents, said Malphurs, who stressed people should swim in front of lifeguard towers. Besides rescuing people caught in rips, lifeguards can call people out of the ocean if they see large groups of baitfish or birds diving into the water because that usually signals that sharks are near. On average we have about eight to 10 shark bites a year and they are all non-life-threatening, Malphurs wrote. But we rescue about 3,000 to 4,000 people from rip currents each year with an average of about five to six drownings, usually in unguarded areas!
New Smyrna Beach No. 1 for shark bites
Joe Mario Pederson - Orlando Sentinel
Great white sharks were involved in at least 16 unprovoked bites out of a total of 57 in 2020, including six of the year’s 10 deaths.
ORLANDO, Fla. Volusia County, but more so New Smyrna Beach, is yet again deemed the shark bite capital of the world, according the International Shark Attack File’s 2020 update.
The United States had 33 attacks in 2020, with the majority of course documented in Florida. There were 16 cases reported in the Sunshine State, with 50% of those documented in Volusia County. Most of those took place in New Smyrna Beach, said Captain Tamra Malphurs of Volusia County Beach Safety Ocean Rescue.
ORLANDO, Fla. Volusia County, but more so New Smyrna Beach, is yet again deemed the shark bite capital of the world, according the International Shark Attack File’s 2020 update. Other findings the report documented included global unprovoked shark attacks have decreased for the third year in a row. However, what could be the first shark-attack related fatality of 2021 has already been .