A 23-year-old woman was swimming at a
beach at Red Reef Park in Boca Raton with a
group of friends when a nurse shark, about
60 centimetres long, latched onto her right
forearm on Sunday and bit into it without
letting go. According to Boca Raton Fire
Rescue, they got a call at approximately 1:20
p.m. on Sunday,saying someone had been
bitten by a shark.
By the time the fire crew got to the scene,
the shark had already been killed by beach
goers who were trying to help the woman.
The firefighters tried to remove the shark
were unable to remove it from the woman's
arm.
A spokesperson for the Boca Raton Ocean
Rescue told reporters that woman remained
calm while she was been held and that there
was a little blood. A splint board was used
to support the woman's arm and the shark
as she lay on the stretcher. She was taken to
the hospital with the shark still attached to
her arm.
"I have never seen anything like it.
Never even heard of anything like this,"
Boca Raton Ocean Rescue Captain
Clint Tracy told the Sun-Sentinel news
organisation in Florida.
Nurse sharks have strong jaws filled with
tiny, serrated teeth which they use to crush
food, including shellfish and coral. They will
bite defensively if stepped on or antagonised,
but are generally considered harmless to
humans.
An 11-year-old boy told the Sun-Sentinel
that, before the woman was bitten, he saw a
group of people "holding the shark by its tail.
They were messing with it."
The woman was taken to Boca Regional
Hospital. She was in stable condition.
Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel
