A teenager was bitten by a shark while surfing in Florida, the sixth such attack this year at a Volusia County beach that’s known as the “shark bite capital of the world,” officials said.
Reed Zipperer, of Satellite Beach, Florida, was bitten on the left hand Monday afternoon at New Smyrna Beach, where another shark attack occurred days earlier, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reported.
All six attacks this year have happened at New Smyrna Beach, including an Arizona man who was bitten on the leg Saturday while boogie boarding not far from where Zipperer was attacked, Volusia County Ocean Rescue Capt. Tammy Malphurs told the newspaper.
Zipperer, 18, said he was enjoying the beach with friends near a jetty when he was nipped while in waist-deep water.
“Went to paddle, and it just like, just bit me and I looked at it,” Zipperer told WKMG. “Like three deep gashes. Like, sick, man. On the way here, we were talking, like, all about sharks.”
It’s unclear what kind of shark took a bite out of Zipperer, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
A lifeguard wrapped Zipperer’s hand after the attack and his friends drove him to the hospital. He received 19 stitches but avoided serious injury, including ligament tears, he said.
“There’s a lot of bait in the water,” Zipperer recalled. “The water is super murky and, like, I don’t blame him. My hand probably looks yummy to them. I would do the same thing.”
A professional surfer was also attacked on Saturday by a shark off Jacksonville Beach, Florida, some 100 miles north of New Smyrna Beach. Frank O’Rourke, 23, was bitten on the right elbow, but decided to visit a bar instead of going to a hospital.
Volusia County is commonly referred to as the “shark bite capital of the world” due to its high frequency of reported incidents, according to the News-Journal, citing experts and an analysis of the Global Shark Attack File.
Nearly 2,800 attacks were recorded in the database from 1990 to July 2019, with nearly 10 percent — or at least 259 incidents — occurring in Volusia County, including New Smyrna Beach. About 80 percent of all incidents were unprovoked, according to Global Shark Attack File statistics.
One of Zipperer’s friends who went with him to the beach on Monday said he had been attacked there by a shark several years earlier.
“It’s kind of crazy because I came back out here with my buddy Reed and it’s like the same thing happened again,” Zipperer’s friend, Jonathan Wallhauser, told CBS News. “So, it definitely shows how many sharks are out here.”
