• Thousands of swarming sharks empty Florida beaches

    Thousands of sharks, heading north after migrating to the south for winter, prompted beach closures along South Florida's Atlantic coastline. NBC's Brian Williams reports.

    Several beaches along South Florida's Atlantic coast line were closed after thousands of sharks were seen migrating in the waters.

    The sharks were migrating from Boca Raton to Jupiter since the beginning of March, marine biologists told NBC Miami.


    Biologists said the sharks are going north after migrating to the south for the winter.

    Lifeguards at Midtown Beach saw spinner sharks in the waters and put up red flags to tell beachgoers they couldn't enter the water.

    "It's dangerous. It's not what you would expect. Families come out here to enjoy the weather, beach, and sand, but now they can't.They have to travel a little bit further than they should," said beachgoer Guirlene Exantus.

    Doctors at St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach told WPTV that they see about five to six shark bite victims annually. These bites are usually minor, but can put the victim at risk for infections.

    Swimmers are advised to swim close at beaches with lifeguards and take jewelry off before getting in the water as experts say sharks are attracted to silver, yellow and gold.

    Jeff Langlois / The Palm Beach Post via ZUMAPRESS.com

    A pod of spinner sharks is seen through a wave at Midtown Beach, Fla. A huge swarm of sharks has shut down beaches of Florida as they migrate up the East Coast.

    Tourist Tori Bradshaw just arrived in South Florida from her home state of Washington.

    "Well, we don't have sharks in Washington," she said "I really wanted to go swimming."

    "If there are sharks, you aren't going to find me in there. Only in Las Vegas," said Burt Abrams, visiting from Cleveland, Ohio.

    They've actually enjoyed being in the water on the their vacation and were surprised to hear they may have not been swimming alone.

    "The water has been beautiful. It's been warm. I don't think they come in this shallow, but I'm not going to test it," Bernice Abrams said.

    NBCMiami.com

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  • Shark attacks on the rise -- with the economy

    Michael Fernandez / AP

    This July 11, 2011 photo shows a shark warning sign along the Surf Beach near Lompoc, Calif. in Santa Barbara County. A shark attack at the Vandenberg Air Force base beach has claimed the life of an experienced 39-year-old surfer, following months of frequent shark sightings along the central California coast.

    By Andrew Rafferty, Staff Writer, NBC News

     

    Shark attacks on humans in the United States have reached their highest levels in more than a decade —  and an improving economy may be the reason why, experts say.

    There were 53 shark attacks in the United States in 2012, matching the previous high set in 2000, according to the International Shark Attack File, an annual report released Monday by researchers at the University of Florida.

    "I think the economy has played a major role in the sense with the downturn in the economy, fewer people had the ability to take holidays and visit the beach,” George Burgess, who heads the effort to compile shark attack data, told Reuters.

    A rebounding economy meant more people went to the beach, which created more opportunities for sharks to attack.

    “The numerical growth in shark interactions does not necessarily mean that there is an increase in the rate of shark attacks; rather, it most likely reflects the ever-increasing amount of time spent in the sea by humans, which increases the opportunities for interaction between the two affected parties,” the report reads.

    The number of shark attacks has steadily grown each decade since 1900, which the study attributes to a constantly increasing amount of time people spend in water.

    The United States typically leads the world in shark attacks. Last year, Florida was the state with the highest number of attacks with 26.

    Surfers and those participating in board sports were most often involved in incidents, making up 60 percent of the attacks, the report said.

  • Shark kills 39-year-old surfer near Santa Barbara, California

    U.S. Air Force via Reuters

    A sign is posted near the beach where a shark attack took place near Vandenberg Air Force Base on Tuesday.

    By Jonathan Lloyd and Melissa Pamer, NBCLosAngeles.com

    Updated at 10:04 p.m. ET: A 39-year-old man surfing off Surf Beach near Lompoc was pronounced dead Tuesday after he was pulled from the water after an apparent shark attack.

    The victim was identified as Francisco Javier Solorio Jr., 39, of nearby Orcutt.

    A friend pulled Solorio onto the sand and started CPR while another surfer called 911. Solorio was pronounced dead at the beach, which is about 60 miles northwest of Santa Barbara on Vandenberg Air Force Base.

    He was "bitten by the shark in the upper torso area," according to the initial investigation by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department.

    Solorio was not affiliated with the military base, according to a press release from Vandenberg.

    Solorio's fatal injury appeared to be a shark bite, and his surf board had "visible signs of bite marks," according to Lt. Erik Raney of the sheriff’s department's Santa Maria station.

    The sheriff's department did not have details regarding the type of shark involved in the attack but had contacted an expert to confirm the injury, the Vandenberg release stated.

    The Vandenberg Air Force Base Fire Department responded to the 911 call at about 11 a.m. Three other males were at the beach at the time of the attack, the sheriff's department said.

    It's been two years since a fatal shark attack at Surf Beach. In October 2010, a 19-year-old college student was killed in a shark attack off Surf Beach. Lucas Ransom was bodyboarding when he disappeared under the water about 100 yards off shore.

    In 2008, a shark bit a surfer's board in the waters off the beach, one of three on the Air Force base.

    Surf Beach was closed until further notice Tuesday and base officials were asking the public to avoid the area "due to safety considerations."

    "We've had shark sightings up and down the Santa Barbara coastline pretty frequently recently," Raney told the Associated Press.

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  • Man hospitalized after suspected shark attack off Cape Cod

    Chris Myers, who was swimming with his son, suffered severe lacerations to his legs and ankles in a suspected shark attack at Ballston Beach in Truro, Mass.

    By NBC News staff

    A man who was attacked by a suspected shark while body surfing with his son near Cape Cod is expected to live, officials say.


    The attack happened around 3:30 p.m. Monday when Chris Myers was body surfing and swimming with his teenage son off the coast of Ballston Beach, part of the Cape Cod National Seashore in Truro, Mass.

    Witnesses on the beach say they saw a dorsal fin emerge from the water. Moments later, Myers was bleeding profusely from his feet and ankles.

    “All of the sudden, between the two swimmers we saw a fin come up and something came through the water,” Anne-Marie Corner, who witnessed the attack, told NBC News affiliate WHDH. “It was a very large fin, easily 15 inches high, and came across and torqued a little towards the second swimmer and within seconds we realized it was a shark and the swimmer had been attacked.”

    “It was, like, two people and this large dark blue-black thing came up and kind of torqued around and you saw this big dorsal fin and it, like, went back down,” another witness, Walter Palmer, told WHDH.

    Myers is treated after a suspected shark attack Monday at Ballston Beach in Truro, Mass., on Cape Cod.

    Gregory Skomal, a shark biologist with the state's Department of Fish and Game, later told a press conference that "the weight of evidence points to a white shark."

    Witnesses say that beachgoers -- including a doctor and a nurse -- jumped into action immediately after the attack. Emergency responders quickly arrived at the scene, bandaged Myers' legs and carried him off the beach on a stretcher.

    Myers is being treated at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, where he will undergo surgery.

    Ballston Beach was open Tuesday, but officials posted signs around the beach warning beachgoers of the recent shark sighting.

    Truro Town Administrator Rex Peterson told the Boston Globe that even if it was determined to be a shark attack, the beach would remain open because  “sharks swim up and down the coast so closing that one particular beach didn’t’ seem to make a whole lot of sense.”

    There have been concerns about shark attacks all summer. Earlier this month a kayaker had a close call with the shark, WHDH reported, and since June there have been several shark sightings near seals.

     

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  • Great white shark sightings prompt swimming ban off Cape Cod

    George Breen / CapeCodSharkHunters.com

    This photo shows what Cape Cod Shark Hunters says is a 16-foot great white shark in the foreground swimming near a group of seals. The shark was spotted last week north of the Chatham, Mass., harbor inlet in close proximity to popular swimming beaches.

    By Sevil Omer, NBC News

    One Cape Cod town is warning swimmers of a menace lurking in the waters this Fourth of July: great white sharks.

    Recent sightings of at least two great whites, including one reportedly measuring up to 16 feet in length, prompted officials in Chatham, Mass., to ban swimming in an an area known for its abundance of seals, according to The Cape Cod Chronicle.

    “Chatham issues advisory after numerous shark sightings, banning swimming within 300 feet of seals along eastern coast,” according to a statement posted by the Cape Cod Chronicle on its Twitter account on Sunday.

    Calls by msnbc.com to the Chatham harbormaster were unanswered on Monday.

    George Breen, a pilot for the Sandwich, Mass.-based conservation group Cape Cod Shark Hunters, said he identified two great white sharks during a routine survey flight on June 28. One shark, he said, was seen about a half mile offshore, while the other was just 50 yards from land.

    The larger one, a 16-footer, was spotted near North Beach Island in Chatham, he said.

    “He was big and close to shore,” Breen told msnbc.com.

    Breen said the two great whites he spotted did not appear to be the same two tagged last year and detected via transmitter signals picked off Chatham last week. At least eight sharks were tagged for research last year, Breen said.

    'We have so many seals'
    Shark sightings, including some in near-shore waters, have spiked in recent years as great whites continue to hunt seals off the Chatham coast, said Joe Fitzback, a veteran sea captain with Chatman Bait & Tackle.

    "The great whites have always been here and we will have more," Fitzback told msnbc.com on Monday. "We have so many seals that it only makes sense that we will have more sightings as the years go by."

    Fitzback said he also spotted a great white shark last week but it was unclear if it was one of the two spotted by Breen. He said his first encounter with a great white came in July 2001, when he was in a boat just a couple of miles east of South Beach.

    "They're out there and they're hungry for seals," Fitzback said.

    He said shark sightings have become big business for the resort town, located on the elbow of Cape Cod. Chatham has six beaches, five located on the Nantucket Sound and one on the ocean side of the Atlantic.

    "It's a novelty of sorts," Fitzback said. "When there are sightings, it gets kind of hectic around here. Everyone wants to come down to see the sharks. But the truth is, you can't see them from the beach, you have to go out into the water."

    Last year, several Chatham beaches shut down due to shark sightings and reports of seal attacks.

    As of Monday, Chatham beaches remained open.

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