Volusia County, Florida is now up to 23 shark bites in 2008, with several months left in the year. DBsurf.org reports this encouraging fact on their Daytona Beach Surf Report website where they show daily photos of Daytona Beach surf conditions and give a full report.
OK, don’t get too freaked out about it. What’s interesting about the Volusia County shark bites is that they are all mostly minor bites where the shark lets go without inflicting a fatal or disfiguring injury. Most of the victims are surfers. Most of them are back in the water surfing in a few days or weeks.
The Gulf coast of Florida has many fewer shark bites, but the few that we do have are more likely to be either fatal or result in serious injury (though even that is rare).
If you’d like more analysis of the shark bite statistics as well as some tips on things you can do to help avoid becoming a shark-snack, check out my BeachHunter.net web page about shark bites in Florida.
And, by the way, the preferred terminology is “shark bite,” not “shark attack.”
