Surfer bitten in the face by shark in New Smyrna Beach
By Claire Metz
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NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Florida (WESH) — A 38-year-old South Carolina man who was bit in the face by a shark Tuesday morning has been released from the hospital.
It happened just before 8 a.m., as the victim surfed in New Smyrna Beach. His shark encounter was at the inlet, where most shark bites occur.
We haven’t reached the victim but he was taken to Halifax Health, which is the trauma center, as a precaution. He’s already been released.
“As we were walking out this morning, we saw four or five spinners ourselves,” longtime surfer Ron Robinson said.
Robinson got to the jetty shortly after the victim was bit, saw him being transported, and learned he’d been bitten on the right side of his cheek, between his ear and his eye, after riding a wave and coming off the board.
“Nine out of 10 times it’s because they’ll fall in the shallow water, and they’ll spook the shark, and it’s a reaction bite,” Robinson said.
Chopper 2 flew the area earlier, recording several sharks in the water near the jetty and of course, plenty of surfers too. The jetty boasts some of the best waves in the southeast and a buffet of bait fish that sharks feed on. The experts have long said a bite is usually a case of mistaken identity, and the locals agree.
“I think if you bump them or you just happen to wave a foot in front of their face, they’ll go for it thinking it’s a fish,” Daniel Hanson said.
Typically, shark bites in Volusia County are not life-threatening and there haven’t been any fatalities as far back as anyone can remember. Still, coming face to face with a shark, as apparently happened here, is unnerving. We’ve yet to interview a surfer who doesn’t say the reward is worth the risk.
“That’s like saying there’s bad drivers on I-4. We know they’re out there. The sharks are out there. It’s their backyard. You just try not to fall on them,” George Franco said.
“I drive I-4 to get over here, so there’s a greater risk there,” he said.
Maybe, but cars don’t have big sharp teeth and the fishy reputation sharks have. Tuesday’s bite is the seventh shark bite in Volusia County so far this year.
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