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3 sailors rescued after sharks attack and partially destroy their inflatable boat off Australian coast

Updated on: September 6, 2023 / 8:30 PM EDT / CBS/AP

Three sailors from Russia and France were rescued on Wednesday after the inflatable catamaran they were trying to navigate from Vanuatu to Australia came under attack from sharks, authorities said.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority said it responded to an alert from an emergency beacon at about 1:30 a.m. When rescuers arrived at the scene more than 500 miles east of the Australian coast in the Coral Sea, they found both hulls of the men's 9-meter boat had been damaged after several shark attacks.

The agency enlisted the help of a Panamanian-flagged ship, the vehicle-carrying "Dugong Ace," which was able to complete the rescue and take the two Russians and one Frenchman aboard. A rescue plane also flew to the scene.

"The three males were very happy to be rescued, and they're all healthy and well," said Joe Zeller , duty manager at the agency's Canberra response center.

Footage shot by a rescue helicopter shows the catamaran bobbing in calm seas as it is approached by the hulking Dugong Ace.

The men, aged between 28 and 64, are due to arrive in the Australian city of Brisbane on Thursday.

Zeller said a journey from the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu to Australia on such a vessel would usually take two to three weeks.

Aerial photos showed major damage to the catamaran, with the front section of one hull completely missing.

Zeller said the GPS-encoded emergency beacon had saved the men's lives by allowing rescuers to quickly pinpoint their location and mount an appropriate rescue.

"This is a timely reminder to always carry a distress beacon while on the water," the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said.  "GPS-equipped EPIRBs and personal locater beacons (PLBs) can save your life in an emergency."

Zeller said there were many reasons why a shark may attack a boat.

"However, the motivations of these sharks is unclear," Zeller said.

The Coral Sea is brimming with reef sharks and other apex species such as tuna and marlin.

According to the Australian government, it is home to more sharks "than almost any other survey site in the world."

Last year, three men whose fishing boat sank off the Louisiana coast were rescued "in the nick of time" by the U.S. Coast Guard after surviving for more than a day despite being attacked by sharks.

AFP contributed to this report.

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3 rescued from Coral Sea after multiple shark attacks damaged inflatable catamaran

Officials reminded citizens "always carry a distress beacon while on the water."

Three people were rescued from the Coral Sea after "multiple shark attacks" damaged their catamaran.

Following an alert from a Russian-registered emergency position-indicating radio beacon, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority responded to the distress call early Wednesday morning at around 1:30 a.m. Australian Eastern Standard Time.

The beacon came from a nine-meter (29 feet) inflatable catamaran Tion with three people aboard -- two Russian citizens and one French citizen.

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The sailing party had departed from Vanuatu, in the South Pacific, and was traveling to Cairns, a coastal city in Queensland, Australia. While details are slim, the stranded people were in their catamaran 835 km (519 miles) off the coast of Cairns in the Coral Sea, per the AMSA. Both hulls of the catamaran had been “damaged following several shark attacks,” the AMSA confirmed in a release.

After receiving the beacon’s signal, AMSA sent a Cairns-based Challenger Rescue Aircraft to the catamaran’s location and secured the assistance of the Dugong Ace, a vehicle carrier sailing under a Panama flag.

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The three people were rescued and are expected to arrive in Brisbane, Australia on Thursday morning.

No further information was immediately available.

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3 sailors whose boat was damaged in several shark attacks have been rescued in Coral Sea

In this photo provided by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, a partially submerged catamaran is shown during a rescue of 3 sailors in the Coral Sea, Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2023. Three sailors from Russia and France were rescued on Wednesday after the inflatable catamaran they were trying to navigate from Vanuatu to Australia came under attack from sharks, authorities said. (Australian Maritime Safety Authority via AP)

In this photo provided by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, a partially submerged catamaran, right, is shown during a rescue of 3 sailors in the Coral Sea, Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2023. Three sailors from Russia and France were rescued on Wednesday after the inflatable catamaran they were trying to navigate from Vanuatu to Australia came under attack from sharks, authorities said. (Australian Maritime Safety Authority via AP)

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BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Three sailors from Russia and France were rescued on Wednesday after the inflatable catamaran they were trying to navigate from Vanuatu to Australia came under attack from sharks, authorities said.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority said it responded to an alert from an emergency beacon at about 1:30 a.m. When rescuers arrived at the scene more than 800 kilometers (500 miles) east of the Australian coast in the Coral Sea, they found both hulls of the men’s 9-meter (30-foot) boat had been damaged after several shark attacks.

The agency enlisted the help of a Panamanian-flagged ship, the vehicle-carrying “Dugong Ace,” which was able to complete the rescue and take the two Russians and one Frenchman aboard. A rescue plane also flew to the scene.

“The three males were very happy to be rescued, and they’re all healthy and well,” said Joe Zeller, duty manager at the agency’s Canberra response center.

The men, aged between 28 and 64, are due to arrive in the Australian city of Brisbane on Thursday.

Zeller said a journey from the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu to Australia on such a vessel would usually take two to three weeks.

Aerial photos showed major damage to the catamaran, with the front section of one hull completely missing.

Zeller said the GPS-encoded emergency beacon had saved the men’s lives by allowing rescuers to quickly pinpoint their location and mount an appropriate rescue. He said there were many reasons why a shark may attack a boat.

“However, the motivations of these sharks is unclear,” Zeller said.

Three rescued after sharks attack inflatable yacht off Australian coast

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Reporting by Renju Jose in Sydney, additional reporting by Wang Jiawei and Mahezabin Sayed; Writing by Alasdair Pal; Editing by Michael Perry

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How a 40cm cookiecutter shark deflated a 9-metre catamaran off the coast of Cairns

How can a 40-centimetre shark deflate a 9-metre catamaran?

On Wednesday at 1:30am three sailors attempting a round-the-world voyage activated their emergency beacon after their boat was attacked by sharks 800 kilometres off the coast of Cairns, and began to sink. 

The craft left St Petersburg on July 1, 2021, in a bid to break the world record for cruising distance in an inflatable sailing trimaran. 

The crew — Russians Evgeny Kovalevsky and Stanislav Beryozkin, and Vincent Thomas Garate from France — were rescued by a cargo ship and arrived at Mooloolaba Harbour, on the Sunshine Coast, today. 

It's suspected their craft was set upon by cookiecutter sharks. 

It's the second catamaran to be used in the attempt, after the first vessel — Russian Ocean Way — was punctured by sharks in Tahiti in June. 

The trio had also made an earlier attempt in March on a trimaran but the trip was abandoned for other reasons.

What are cookiecutter sharks?

Cookiecutter sharks are little, but their prey is not. 

"Cookiecutter sharks are unique in that they're very small, usually around 40 centimetres," Daryl McPhee, an associate professor of environmental science at Bond University, said. 

"They generally feed on large prey including whales and large fish."

The sharks have an "odd and somewhat frightening array of teeth they use to grab their prey and twist to bite a circular piece off," he said. 

They can do this to an animal several times, slowly eating their prey.

Are they a threat to humans?

It is very rare for a cookiecutter shark to attack a human, and of the small number of attacks recorded, none were fatal, Dr McPhee said. 

The first reported cookiecutter shark attack was in Hawaii in 2011, when the victim was swimming in deep water late at night.

The most recent attack was on a 7-year-old boy on Magnetic Island in 2017.

Why did the boat fall prey?

Cookiecutters are opportunistic feeders – they aren't fussy, Dr McPhee said. 

Unlike most other breeds of shark who feed at dusk and dawn, cookiecutter sharks are night-time feeders and prefer tropical waters.

It's not unheard of for them to attack inanimate objects, with reports of attacks on submarines and underwater cables, Dr McPhee said.

It is likely that the sharks mistook the inflatable catamaran for a whale or dolphin carcass, causing punctures to two out of its three hulls, he said. 

The small sharks can make "short work of inflatable boats", Dr McPhee said. 

Should we be worried?

Dr McPhee said this attack was likely an isolated one. 

"I don't suspect we're going to see a global spate of cookiecutter shark bites anytime soon," he said. 

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Three sailors rescued from shark-bitten catamaran off Australia

Officials said sharks attacked the inflatable catamaran and tore off large chunks of the vessel’s hull.

Three men on board a catamaran off the northeastern coast of Australia have been rescued after sharks tore off sections from the hull of their inflatable vessel, according to officials.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said the three sailors – two Russian and one French citizen – were rescued early on Wednesday.

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They were picked up by a Panama-flagged vehicle carrier – the Dugong Ace – while floating in the Coral Sea, some 835km (519 miles) southeast of Cairns in Australia.

Satellite photos and a video on the AMSA website showed a large part of the stern of the nine-metre (30-foot) yacht torn away.

“Both hulls of the vessel have been damaged following several shark attacks,” AMSA said in a statement.

The authority said the sailors, aged between 28 and 64, had planned to sail from the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu to Cairns, a distance of more than 2,000km (1,200 miles). They activated an emergency distress beacon in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

The three sailors are due to arrive in Brisbane on Thursday, AMSA said.

“There’s many reasons why vessels are attacked by sharks. However, the motivations of these sharks are unclear,” said Joe Zeller, the acting manager of the AMSA Response Centre. The three sailors “were very happy to be rescued and they are all healthy and well and aboard the Dugong Ace,” he added.

The Coral Sea where the men were found is brimming with reef sharks.

According to the Australian government, it is home to more sharks “than almost any other survey site in the world”.

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3 Men Rescued from Coral Sea After ‘Several Shark Attacks’ Damage Their Inflatable Catamaran

The trio were rescued in the early hours of Wednesday morning, over 500 miles off the coast of Australia

Three men have been rescued from the Coral Sea after "several shark attacks" damaged their inflatable catamaran.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority confirmed in a media release that both hulls of the 30-foot catamaran had been damaged following the attacks more than 500 miles off the Australian coast.

The three men, who were traveling to the Cairns in the far north of Queensland, were rescued in the early hours of Wednesday morning. The boat’s emergency distress beacon sent out a call at 1:30 a.m. local time. 

russian.ocean.way Instagram

A video posted on the AMSA’s official Twitter, now known as X, shared footage of the search and rescue effort. “Remember to always bring a registered beacon with you when you're out on the water - it could help save your life,” the tweet accompanying the clip read. 

“AMSA requested the assistance of Panama-flagged vehicle carrier Dugong Ace and tasked the Cairns-based Challenger Rescue Aircraft to the scene. Dugong Ace successfully conducted the rescue and collected three people,” the release added.

Australian Maritime Safety Authority via AP

According to NBC News , the men had set off from the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu on Aug. 28 on the latest stage of an around-the-world trip.

Per the outlet, the sailors, aged between 28 and 64, are said to be unharmed. Their belongings were also saved, but the catamaran was lost.

The trio, two Russians and one Frenchman, are due to arrive in Brisbane, Australia on Thursday morning, the release said. 

Joe Zeller, a senior manager at AMSA, said in a video statement that the catamaran had “large sections of its hull missing,” reported CNN ,  

"An emergency beacon absolutely saved their lives," he continued. “There are many reasons vessels are attacked by sharks but the motivations of these sharks is unclear.”

Zeller added that the men were “very happy” to be rescued. 

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Per the voyage’s Instagram account @russian.ocean.way , the three men onboard were Evgeny Kovalevsky, Stanislav Berezkin and Vincent Thomas Etienne.

According to one post, their vessel was first attacked by sharks on Monday and began to sink on Tuesday.

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Follow our news, recent searches, three rescued from shark-bitten inflatable catamaran off australia after setting sail from vanuatu, advertisement.

The trio are unharmed, says a spokesperson for the voyage, which is aimed at promoting Russia and Siberia. 

A view shows the boat that carried three people who were rescued from the Coral Sea. (Photo: Reuters/Australian Maritime Safety Authority/Handout)

SYDNEY: Three men were plucked to safety on Wednesday (Sep 6) after sharks started tearing chunks from their inflatable catamaran as they attempted to sail to Australia from Vanuatu - a distance of more than 2,000km.

The men - two Russians and a French citizen - were picked up by a cargo ship while floating in the shark-filled Coral Sea.

"Both hulls of the vessel have been damaged following several shark attacks," the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said in a statement.

The authority said the trio had planned to sail from the Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu to the city of Cairns in tropical northern Australia.

They activated an emergency distress beacon - registered to the Tion, a 9m inflatable catamaran - in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

AMSA requested the assistance of a Panama-flagged vehicle carrier, which successfully conducted the rescue. The boat was located about 800km southeast of Cairns in the Coral Sea.

Footage shot by a rescue helicopter shows the catamaran bobbing in calm seas as it is approached by the hulking Dugong Ace, a vehicle transporter that came to the sailors' aid.

The Coral Sea is brimming with reef sharks and other apex species such as tuna and marlin.

According to the Australian government, it is home to more sharks "than almost any other survey site in the world".

The three passengers are due to arrive in Brisbane on Thursday, AMSA said.

The men were unharmed, said Anna Kosikhina, a spokesperson for the voyage, which she said was aimed at promoting Russia and Siberia and began two years ago.

"They were all intact. Nobody is hurt," she said.

"The only thing is that the balloons of the inflatable catamaran were blown away."

This was not the first accident on the voyage, Kosikhina said, with the steering device of a previous vessel failing during a previous leg from Chile to Easter Island.

The crew continued the expedition on an inflatable catamaran by the same manufacturer that had been stored on the island for several years.

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See the damage caused to a catamaran after shark attacks in the Coral Sea

Three people on an inflatable catamaran were rescued in the Coral Sea, off Australia’s coast, after the vessel was damaged by "several shark attacks."

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The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) say they received a distress call from an emergency radio beacon early on Wednesday and asked for assistance from the nearby Panama-flagged vehicle carrier Dugong Ace.

Aerial footage shows the 9-metre catamaran had a large section of hull missing.

"There are many reasons that vessels are attacked by sharks,” Joe Zeller from AMSA explains. "However, the motivation of these sharks is unclear."

The vessel was on a round-the-world expedition and was located some 835 kilometres from its destination in Australia.

Officials say those rescued, two Russian and one French citizen aged between 28 and 64, are healthy, well and "happy to be rescued.”

See the damage to ship in the video at the top of this article.

With files from Reuters

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What attacks nuclear submarines, glows in the dark and looks like “a pencil with teeth”?

Give up? It’s a type of shark called a cookiecutter shark, so named because its vampiric teeth can take 2-inch round chunks out of much larger prey.

The sharks attracted worldwide attention this week for swamping a (no-longer) inflatable catamaran attempting a round-the-world voyage .

That trip was cut short when a school of cookiecutters mistook the vessel for a whale — which is on their menu, along with dolphins, bluefin tuna and other, bigger sharks like great whites.

“They’re a really cool species of shark. This unfortunate incident has given us an opportunity to learn about them,” Prof. Jodie Rummer, a marine biologist at James Cook University in Australia, told the Guardian .

“They’re called the cookiecutter shark because they don’t actually swallow their prey,” Rummer added. “They just take little bite-size morsels out of the side of them.”

It gets weirder, Rummer said: “They’re bioluminescent too — they glow.”

Cookiecutter sharks ( Isistius brasiliensis ) grow as large as 20 inches long. Because they’re small and live in deep waters, they don’t receive much attention or academic study.

The sharks usually feed in the deep ocean during the day and near the surface at night, so they spend much of their lives in darkness.

A parasitic species, cookiecutter sharks have an “odd and somewhat frightening array of teeth they use to grab their prey and twist to bite a circular piece off,” Daryl McPhee, associate professor of environmental science at Bond University, told the Australian outlet ABC .

They “really just look like a pencil with teeth,” McPhee added.

And they’re not picky eaters: Cookiecutters have been known to chomp down on undersea cables and the sonar components of nuclear submarines.

The ReefQuest Centre for Shark Research says that in the 1970s, “several American subs were forced to return to base due to cookiecutter damage to their neoprene-covered sonar domes, which caused the sound-transmitting oil to leak out and rendered the enormous subs effectively ‘blind.’

“The US Navy must have had nightmare visions of a completely unknown, rather diabolical, enemy weapon.”

But are they man eaters? Again, they’re not picky, and they’ve been known to try a bit of human flesh here and there before moving on.

A cookiecutter shark attack was reported in Hawaii in 2011, when the victim was swimming in deep water at night. Another attack occurred in 2017 off Magnetic Island in Australia. Both victims survived.

But a real attack would be extremely painful, because the sharks travel — and dine — in schools.

“If you can imagine, they’ve got limited vision and it’s dark. They see an inflatable catamaran with a big surface area that is soft and flat. ‘Is it a whale? Let’s have a look. Oh, yep, that tastes like rubber. It’s not for me,'” said Rummer.

That’s probably how a few small sharks were able to swamp a 30-foot inflatable catamaran. “This species does often travel in schools, and if they’re all going at this inflatable thinking it’s a potential food item, that’s where [you get] damage as there are multiple bites,” she added.

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6 people encounter sharks in two days in Florida, Texas. Why so many? How to avoid bites

It's shark week, and not the good Discovery Channel kind . Six people had shark encounters within about 30 hours in Florida and Texas and four were injured.

On July 4, a 21-year-old Ohio man was bitten by a shark while playing football in knee-deep water at New Smyrna Beach, according to a Volusia County Beach Safety report. He sustained non-life-threatening injuries to his right foot.

Meanwhile, four people encountered a shark in the water off South Padre Island in Texas, according to a press release by Texas Parks and Wildlife . Two of them were bitten and were taken to a local hospital for trteatment.

The next day, there was another shark incident in New Smyrna Beach when one bit a Sarasota man on his left foot while he wading in an inner tube in about five feet of water, the VCBS said. New Smyrna Beach is widely considered the "shark bite capital of the world" due to the high number of incidents.

A man was critically injured with a severe bite to his right arm near Fernandina Beach last week, Nassau County authorities said.

Earlier this month two teenagers and a woman were injured in two shark attacks less than two hours apart in the Florida Panhandle. The woman lost her lower left arm and suffered "significant trauma" to other areas of her body, officials said at a Friday afternoon news conference. The mother of one of the teens said the girl's hand had been taken and her right leg had to be amputated . Both incidents happened between Miramar Beach and Panama City Beach on the Gulf of Mexico.

Why are there so many shark bites this year?

Sheriff's Office helicopters and officials from the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission patrolling the shores have reported seeing unusual amounts of shark activity at different times around encounters.

Capt. Gary Jarvis, who has been fishing out of Destin for over 40 years, told The Destin Log that the shark population in the Gulf of Mexico is larger than he'd ever seen.

“There are more people that swim in the water than before and there are more sharks in the water than ever before. So, the incident rate of shark bites is only going to go in one direction,” Jarvis said. 

However, it also must be pointed out that while news reports seem more frequent, actual shark bites are still incredibly rare and Florida likely sees more just because the state ha a longer period of beach weather, has nearly 8,500 miles of shoreline and has a higher number of people in the water at any given time than most places.

"I think because Florida's a year-round beach destination, you have this scenario whereby people are more likely to be bitten here simply because there's so many people in the water all the time," Dr. Stephen Kajiura , a professor of biological sciences at Florida Atlantic University, told The Excerpt podcast.

How many shark bites were there worldwide in 2023?

The Florida Museum of Natural History’s  International Shark Attack File  investigated 120 alleged shark-human interactions worldwide in 2023.  Sixty-nine were confirmed as unprovoked shark bites  on humans and 22 were found to be provoked bites.

But fatalities from shark bites doubled in 2023 from the year before, with 14 confirmed shark-related fatalities, including 10 classified as unprovoked. Two were in the United States, in California and Hawaii.

Breakdown of 2023 reports around the world:

• Unprovoked bites: 69
• Provoked bites: 22
• Boat bites: 9
• Scavenge: 2 (post-mortem bites)
• Public Aquaria: 1
• No assignment could be made: 1
• Not confirmed: 16

Florida remains shark bite capital of the US

Florida continues to be the No. 1 location for the number of shark bites, according to the  International Shark Attack File .

There were 16 bites — although none were fatal — confirmed in 2023. That's lower than Florida's historic average of 19 incidents a year. Eight of them were Volusia County, home of Daytona Beach and New Smyrna Beach, which has  long been dubbed "the shark bite capital of the world ." 

• Florida:  16 bites, none fatal
• Hawaii:  8 bites, 1 fatal
• New York:  4 bites, none fatal
• California:  2 bites, 1 fatal
• North Carolina:  3 bites, none fatal
• South Carolina:  2 bites, none fatal
• New Jersey:  1 bite, none fatal

Top 10: Confirmed unprovoked shark attacks in Florida from 1882 to present

• Volusia County: 351
• Brevard County: 158
• Palm Beach County: 83
• St. Johns County: 45
• Duval County: 46
• Martin County: 41
• St. Lucie County: 39
• Indian River County: 22
• Monroe County: 21
• Miami-Dade County: 20

How do I avoid shark bites?

• Swim with a buddy. Most sharks are more likely to approach a solitary person.
• Stay close to shore.
• Be careful around the area between sandbars or near steep dropoffs, both popular shark hangouts.
• Stay out of the water at dawn or dusk when sharks are more active and feeding.
• Avoid shiny jewelry or reflective swimwear that might resemble the sheen of fish scales.
• Avoid areas where people are fishing or areas with known effluents or sewage. Stay away from areas with diving seabirds.
• Be careful in murky water. Some shark species may not see you very well either, and there can be confusion.
• Try not to splash too much, especially in a single spot. Sharks may investigate to see if you are a fish in distress.
• If a shark is spotted, slowly and calmly get out of the water.

Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA TODAY, contributed to this story.

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Sailors rescued from an inflatable catamaran damaged by sharks talk about their ordeal.

Three men on board an inflatable catamaran, who were rescued after the boat was damaged by several shark attacks off the northeast coast of Australia, have spoken about what happened. Sept. 7, 2023

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Shark bites in Florida: See pictures of wounds, scars from survivors

As both locals and tourists continue hit Florida's beaches this summer , there might be something in the back of their minds — sharks.

Earlier this month, two teenagers and a woman  were injured in  two shark attacks less than two hours apart in the Florida Panhandle's Walton County.

In the days following the attacks, the victims recovered from life-altering injuries. According to officials, the woman  lost her lower left arm  and suffered "significant trauma" to other areas of her body. One of the teenagers had significant injuries to the upper leg and one hand, and the other had minor injuries on one foot.

According to the  International Shark Attack File , the state saw 16 cases last year , which represent 44% of the U.S. total and 23% of unprovoked bites worldwide.

Viewer discretion advised: Curious what a shark bite actually looks like? See photos

Support local journalism by  subscribing to a Florida news organization .

Friday shark bite is second reported on New Smyrna Beach in 2 days; Sarasota man injured

A second shark bite in two days was reported Friday at New Smyrna Beach, a popular surfing spot also known unofficially as the shark bite capital of the world.

The bite happened shortly before 4:15 p.m. A 26-year-old man visiting from Sarasota was bitten on his left foot while wading in an inner tube in approximately five feet of water according to Volusia County Beach Safety spokeswoman Tamra Malphurs.

The victim's injuries are not life-threatening. He received treatment on scene before being transported to the hospital for further care. His name was not released.

On Independence Day, 21-year-old Connor Graham Baker of Belpre, Ohio, was bitten by a shark at the same beach while playing football in knee-deep water. His injuries were not life-threatening and he was taken to a nearby hospital. The shark bit him on the right foot.

In 2023, there were 69 unprovoked shark attacks worldwide, according to the University of Florida’s International Shark Attack File. Of those 69 incidents, the U.S. led all other nations with 36; Florida led all U.S. states with 16; and Volusia County led all Florida counties with eight.

Meanwhile, safety officials say there have been extremely hazardous rip current conditions affecting the coastline, and since Wednesday lifeguards have rescued nearly 400 souls from the ocean,

"It is crucial for beachgoers to understand the importance of swimming in front of a staffed lifeguard tower," Malphurs wrote in a message to reporters. "These hazardous conditions pose a significant danger. If there is no lifeguard on duty, do not enter the water."

A West Virginia man drowned on Wednesday afternoon while swimming in an area of Daytona Beach that was  not staffed with a lifeguard . The 43-year-old man was visiting the area with his family.  He got caught in a rip current  about 2 p.m. north of the Daytona Beach Bandshell, according to officials.

Beachgoers are encouraged to download the Volusia Beaches app, available for free on Google Play and iTunes App stores. The beach app provides real-time updates on the status of beach ramps and staffed lifeguard towers, as well as beach conditions.

Man recovering from shark bite on the Florida coast in state's third attack in a month

Authorities say a man bitten by a shark over the weekend on Florida’s northeast coast is recovering

A man on Florida’s northeast coast was bitten by a shark this weekend but is now recovering, authorities said Sunday, in the third shark attack in state waters over the past month.

Officials from the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office Marine Unit responding to a distress call Friday morning found the victim in critical condition aboard a boat, losing blood from a “severe” shark bite on his right forearm, according to a social media post from the sheriff’s office.

The attack occurred in the Amelia River near Fernandina Beach, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of Jacksonville, after the victim caught the shark while fishing, according to sheriff’s office public affairs officer Alicia Tarancon.

After officers applied a tourniquet, the victim was taken to shore, where he was airlifted to a local hospital, The Florida Times-Union reported .

On Sunday, Tarancon told The Associated Press that the victim is alert and still recuperating at the hospital.

It’s the third shark attack in Florida in June. The other two attacks in the Florida panhandle in early June left three people injured and led to the temporary closure of beaches in Walton County.

Three more attacks were reported in the U.S. — one in Southern California and two in Hawaii , one resulting in death .

Stephen Kajiura, a Florida Atlantic University professor of biological sciences specializing in sharks, said the number of recent attacks is a “bit high” but is a natural result of more people in the water during summer and warmer waters.

“You’re going to have a higher probability of something happening because more people are coming to the beach,” he said. “It is strange to get so many bites in quick succession, but when you consider the number of people in water right now, it’s not that unusual.”

Another reason for increased shark activity is small bait fish, which sharks feed on, swimming close to the beach, Kajiura said. He also said scientists are seeing a resurgence of some species of sharks, which could mean more sharks are in the water.

According to experts, shark activity is at its peak during warmer months, but also while sharks are seasonally migrating in the fall and spring up and down the coast.

Still, Kajiura said, fatalities are rare.

Kajiura noted that Florida leads the world in shark bites .

Though none were fatal, Florida reported 16 unprovoked shark bite incidents last year, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History’s annual shark attack report . That represents 44% of the 36 total unprovoked bites in the U.S. in 2023, and a little less than a quarter worldwide.

Kajiura urged swimmers not to avoid the water – just be vigilant.

Avoid flashy jewelry or watches, which may appear similar to fish scales in the water, he said, and swim in groups and where there are lifeguards. Also, avoid swimming near schools of fish, where sharks may be lurking.

“You’ve probably been in the water with sharks before, and you didn’t know it,” he said. “Just be careful.”

Shark Bites Florida Man Leaving Him in Critical Condition with 'Severe' Injuries to His Arm

“He had a severe sharkbite to his forearm here, lost a lot of blood. He was bleeding pretty bad," Nassau County Sheriff's Office said

A man is in critical condition after he was bitten by a shark on Florida’s eastern coast, according to officials.

On Friday, June 28, Nassau County Sheriff's Office (NCSO) shared on social media that officers responded to a distress call reporting a shark bite around 11:15 a.m. that day. They added that “a man aboard his vessel had suffered a severe bite to his right arm.”

In a video, Nassau County Sheriff Bill Leeper said that the NCSO marine unit had been patrolling around Amelia Island when they received the distress call and “headed” toward the man’s boat. He said they were eventually “flagged down” and boarded the man’s vessel.

The sheriff’s office said deputies found the man — who has not been identified — “with a critical injury.” 

Related: Man Hospitalized After 'Rare’ Shark Bite Off Florida Barrier Island

“He had a severe sharkbite to his forearm here, lost a lot of blood,” Leeper shared. “He was bleeding pretty bad.” 

He said a deputy “assessed him real quick” before he “applied a tourniquet to stop the bleeding” on his arm. The sheriff’s office shared photos from the incident, including a deputy wrapping the tourniquet around the man’s right arm as he rested on the medium-sized boat.

The deputy then “piloted” the man’s boat to the Dee Dee Bartels boat ramp, where the Fernandina Beach Fire Rescue had been waiting, according to Leeper.

Related: Kayaker Nearly Loses Leg After Shark Bite in Sydney Harbor: ‘It Was Like the Worst Horror Movie'

“The deputy was a hero when he arrived, to make sure he took care of the situation,” he noted.

The Sherriff's Office said that the man was “immediately airlifted to a nearby hospital” for medical treatment. The man was listed in critical condition, but was “expected to recover,” according to authorities.

No further details of the circumstances that led to the man being bitten were shared by authorities.

Earlier this month, three people were injured in shark attacks around Walton County beaches located on Florida's western shore within 90 minutes of each other, according to CNN . Two people were reported to have been in critical condition while the third was in stable condition.

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The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission warned on its website that shark activity “is at its peak in Florida waters during April through October.” However, it also noted that shark bites are “very rare.”

"Humans are 30 times more likely to be struck by lightning in Florida than to be bitten by a shark, Experts agree that the increase in the number of shark bites in recent years is more related to an increase in human visitors than to an increase in shark populations or activity,” the commission's website said.

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Which sharks around Brevard, Florida bite the most? More than a third fit in this category

This list is not scientific, but based on how much we cross paths, resulting in a bite , here's a rough ranked list of the risk from various shark species in our region.

It's gleaned from the University of Florida's International Shark Attack File's (ISAF) data.

More than a third of the bites are a large group called requiem sharks, which include lemon sharks, sandbar sharks, spinner, sharpnose, blacknose and blacktip sharks.

"Due to the similarity of small coastal species in this group in tooth shape, body size, and appearance, it is often difficult to assign a species in bite cases," the Shark Attack File's website says. "Based on life history traits, ISAF suspects blacktip sharks ... account for the majority of these requiem bites in Florida. However, these cases lack enough evidence to be conclusive."

Lucky for us, most of those near shore tend to be the very small ones.

"No shark is more likely than another to bite, really, but the little ones are small enough to chase prey into the shallows where people swim," Toby Daly-Engel, an assistant professor at the Florida Institute of Technology and director of the school's Shark Conservation Lab, said via email.

"Larger ones like tiger sharks are rarer, but they're so big that even a minor bite could be fatal," she added. "Blacktips are the most abundant, so they cause most of the injuries in this area. Of course, rays are just flat sharks, so stingray stings are counted as attacks, too."

So she says it makes sense to rank the riskiest sharks for bites, from small to large sharks as follows:

• Finetooth shark
• Lemon shark
• Tiger shark

"There are also other sharks in our waters, like sand tiger sharks, white sharks, spinner sharks, oceanic whitetips, hammerheads, and all sorts of deeper-water species that you rarely see," Daly-Engel added.

Here's the breakdown of which species of sharks have bitten people in Florida since 1926, according to UF's shark attack file:

Contact Waymer at (321) 261-5903 or [email protected].