A woman was bitten by a shark off Snipe Point near Key West in the Florida Keys.
The unidentified woman was swimming around 12:30 p.m. July 22 when she was bitten on the foot.
A Good Samaritan called the Coast Guard to report the incident and location of the incident.
The 40-year-old woman had significant injury and was transported via the Coast Guard on a 33-foot Special Purpose Craft to a local Coast Guard station.
She was airlifted to Miami for treatment of the wound which was said to have been caused by a small shark.
A month earlier a spearfisherman filmed the moment he was bitten by a shark off Boca Chica in the Keys.
Parker Simpson was off Middle Samo Reef June 4 floating on the surface while holding a freshly speared grouper.
A 7- to 8-foot reef shark showed up and went after the grouper.
“He [the shark] first bit my left fin then took a chunk out of the right one before biting my leg and cutting the speargun line,” the 23-year-old said. His wounds were quite deep.
“The shark tore through the skin, fat tissue, muscle, muscle sheath and, unfortunately, my tibial artery which caused me to lose more than a liter of blood,” Simpson said.
He set up a GoFundMe. page to help with his medical bills. “As our local hospital is far more expensive than most, I must turn toward crowd funding,” he posted. “At this point I’ll be swimming in debt rather than with the fishes.”
There have been a total of 59* shark attack bites in 2017, 5 of which were fatal*; 28 were reported in the US, with 20 occurring in Florida** and one in Hawaii. Nine occurred in Australia, one of which was fatal and one with no injury. Three unconfirmed worldwide and not included in the total count.
All locations have been marked on the 2017 Shark Attack Bites Tracking Map.
*Two may be scavenge. **One report may have been outside of Florida waters.
