{"id":20120,"date":"2024-06-12T14:46:55","date_gmt":"2024-06-12T18:46:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/?post_type=wfsu-news&p=20120"},"modified":"2024-06-12T16:41:17","modified_gmt":"2024-06-12T20:41:17","slug":"marine-experts-weigh-in-on-shark-attacks-after-3-people-were-bitten-in-walton-county","status":"publish","type":"wfsu-news","link":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/marine-experts-weigh-in-on-shark-attacks-after-3-people-were-bitten-in-walton-county\/","title":{"rendered":"Marine experts weigh in on shark attacks after 3 people were bitten in Walton County"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Friday, three people were bitten<\/a> by sharks in Walton county beaches, both of which happened just hours apart. Now, wildlife experts are looking into shark behavior in Florida.<\/p>\n

“We understand that as tragic as this is, there are always sharks and we have to be careful,” Walton County Sheriff Michael Adkinson said at a news conference on Friday.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

The latest attacks<\/b><\/p>\n

South Walton Fire District and Walton County Sheriff’s Office responded to two shark related incidents Friday afternoon. Two people were critically injured, and one other person suffered minor injuries.<\/p>\n

The first victim, a 45-year-old woman, was bitten by a shark as she was swimming past the first sandbar near Watersound Beach.<\/p>\n

SWFD lifeguards and WCSO deputies arrived on-scene and found the woman sustained critical injuries on her hip and an “amputation of her lower left arm.” The patient was airlifted to a local trauma facility to receive further treatment for her injuries.<\/p>\n

The second incident took place near Seacrest Beach at approximately 2:55 p.m., Friday afternoon, four miles east of the first incident. Two female teenagers, 15 and 17-years old, were injured in the attack. Officials said on Friday the two girls were with a group of friends inside a sandbar at about waist-deep water.<\/p>\n

One teen had “significant” injuries to the upper leg and one hand and was transported by air to a local hospital. The other female had minor injuries on one foot and is in stable condition.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

What experts are saying?<\/b><\/p>\n

Gavin Naylor is the Director of the Florida Program for Shark Research<\/a>. He told WFSU in an interview Wednesday, shark attacks are down this year, but said it’s “pretty rare” to have multiple attacks happen on the same day.<\/p>\n

\u201cSharks tear through the little channels between the sandbars and there\u2019s a whole bunch of people splashing around,” explained Naylor.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Florida accounted for 44% of the total unprovoked shark bites in the U.S., according to the International Shark Attack File.<\/a><\/p>\n

“Sharks feed on baitfish,” said Naylor. “You’ve got a high density of people at the beach in shallow waters where the baitfish are, and the sharks follow them. If there’s lots of people in the way, the sharks get distracted and bite somebody.”<\/p>\n

Beaches in Walton and Bay counties were closed Friday and reopened Saturday morning with purple flag warnings to make beachgoers aware of dangerous marine life.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

Copyright 2024 WFSU<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":20121,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","wds_primary_category":0},"categories":[],"tags":[1136,1135],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMarine experts weigh in on shark attacks after 3 people were bitten in Walton County - WFSU Local Routes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/marine-experts-weigh-in-on-shark-attacks-after-3-people-were-bitten-in-walton-county\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Marine experts weigh in on shark attacks after 3 people were bitten in Walton County - WFSU Local Routes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Walton county officials have reopened their beaches, but fly purple flags to make beachgoers aware of dangerous marine life.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/marine-experts-weigh-in-on-shark-attacks-after-3-people-were-bitten-in-walton-county\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"WFSU Local Routes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-06-12T20:41:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/screenshot-2024-06-12-143641.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"962\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"558\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/marine-experts-weigh-in-on-shark-attacks-after-3-people-were-bitten-in-walton-county\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/marine-experts-weigh-in-on-shark-attacks-after-3-people-were-bitten-in-walton-county\/\",\"name\":\"Marine experts weigh in on shark attacks after 3 people were bitten in Walton County - WFSU Local Routes\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-06-12T18:46:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-06-12T20:41:17+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/marine-experts-weigh-in-on-shark-attacks-after-3-people-were-bitten-in-walton-county\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/marine-experts-weigh-in-on-shark-attacks-after-3-people-were-bitten-in-walton-county\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/marine-experts-weigh-in-on-shark-attacks-after-3-people-were-bitten-in-walton-county\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Marine experts weigh in on shark attacks after 3 people were bitten in Walton County\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/\",\"name\":\"WFSU Local Routes\",\"description\":\"Local stories from northern Florida and southern Georgia.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Marine experts weigh in on shark attacks after 3 people were bitten in Walton County - WFSU Local Routes","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/marine-experts-weigh-in-on-shark-attacks-after-3-people-were-bitten-in-walton-county\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Marine experts weigh in on shark attacks after 3 people were bitten in Walton County - WFSU Local Routes","og_description":"Walton county officials have reopened their beaches, but fly purple flags to make beachgoers aware of dangerous marine life.","og_url":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/marine-experts-weigh-in-on-shark-attacks-after-3-people-were-bitten-in-walton-county\/","og_site_name":"WFSU Local Routes","article_modified_time":"2024-06-12T20:41:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":962,"height":558,"url":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/screenshot-2024-06-12-143641.png","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/marine-experts-weigh-in-on-shark-attacks-after-3-people-were-bitten-in-walton-county\/","url":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/marine-experts-weigh-in-on-shark-attacks-after-3-people-were-bitten-in-walton-county\/","name":"Marine experts weigh in on shark attacks after 3 people were bitten in Walton County - WFSU Local Routes","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-06-12T18:46:55+00:00","dateModified":"2024-06-12T20:41:17+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/marine-experts-weigh-in-on-shark-attacks-after-3-people-were-bitten-in-walton-county\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/marine-experts-weigh-in-on-shark-attacks-after-3-people-were-bitten-in-walton-county\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/marine-experts-weigh-in-on-shark-attacks-after-3-people-were-bitten-in-walton-county\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Marine experts weigh in on shark attacks after 3 people were bitten in Walton County"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/#website","url":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/","name":"WFSU Local Routes","description":"Local stories from northern Florida and southern Georgia.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wfsu-news\/20120"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wfsu-news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/wfsu-news"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}