Shark bites 8-year-old North Carolina boy: How attacks can be prevented
For the fourth time in two weeks someone has been attacked by a shark off a North Carolina beach. Despite this recent surge, experts say that such shark attacks are rare.
An 8-year-old boy was bitten by a shark Wednesday while swimming in knee-deep water in Surf City, N.C., the .
Town Manager Larry Bergman said that the boy had minor wounds on his lower leg, heel, and ankle.
The Surf City does not have an official lifeguard staff, but some police officers and water-rescue-trained firefighters who patrol the beaches on ATVs. Mr. Bergman says people swim 鈥渒ind of at their own risk.鈥�
This is the fourth recent shark attack in shallow water in North Carolina.聽On June 11, a 13-year-old girl suffered small cuts from a shark bite at Ocean Isle Beach.聽Three days later,聽two teenagers聽were injured聽off the coast of the Oak Island beach in two separate, successive attacks.
Director of the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of Natural History, George Burgess, says that shark attacks, especially successive ones, are very rare.
He that in 40 years of studying the animal he had seen only two cases of successive shark attacks: One in Florida 15 or 20 years ago, and another .
The worldwide yearly average for is 75, about 10 of which result in death, according to Florida Museum of Natural History. The US sees about and one fatality every two years.
Based on the museum鈥檚 data, North Carolina has had only , none of them fatal.
People can decrease the small chance of becoming a victim of a shark attack by being proactive about their own safety. Florida Museum of Natural History : Swim in a group since sharks most often attack lone individuals. Sharks can smell and taste blood, so do not enter the water bleeding.
Shiny jewelry can attract sharks, as the reflected light resembles shiny fish scales, and colorful swimwear also tends to appeal to sharks.
In the end as Burgess , shark attacks are not as common as it is perceived and one has "a better chance of dying from a bee sting, a dog or snake bite, or lightning than from a shark attack."
