Florida man bitten by eight-foot shark after being mistaken for bait

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A man in Florida was bitten by an eight-foot shark, as he swam close to a fishing line 40 yards from the shore.

The South Walton Fire District (SWFD) said in a press release on Facebook that the man sustained “visible wounds to the upper body and chest area” and was transported to a local hospital.

SWFD beach safety personnel and emergency units responded to the incident on Thursday afternoon in the area of Grayton Beach State Park in northwestern Florida.

Authorities said the man is believed to be in stable condition and expected to recover but that he is receiving further treatment.

Officials reported that the victim said they had been swimming approximately 40 yards from shore near a fishing line when the shark approached and apparently mistook him for fishing line bait.

The shark in question was believed to be seven to eight feet in length, well above the average measurement of a shark at four to seven feet.

The fire district said that double red flags were put in place as a precaution in the area for one hour following the biting.

The incident comes not long after reports that a high frequency of sharks are swimming along the shores of east coast states.

“There are thousands of them on the East Coast right now,” Chris Fischer, the founder of the Ocearch, a research foundation that tracks sharks told The New York Post following reports sharks had been detected close to New York City coasts.

Experts have continued to assure people that incidents of shark bitings are rare, but advise swimmers to employ vigilance and common sense when in open waters.

In fact, according to the Florida museum’s yearly worldwide shark attack summary, both fatal and non-fatal shark bites are decreasing.

Their international shark attack file confirmed there had been 57 unprovoked shark bites and 13 shark-related fatalities in 2020, 10 of which were confirmed to be unprovoked.