Two shark attacks in fewer than three days along the Florida Panhandle left scientists and tourism officials struggling Tuesday to fend off fears that another “Summer of the Shark” was dawning.
In 2001, a spate of gruesome shark attacks in Florida sparked a worldwide media frenzy. But by summer’s end, it became clear that the actual number of shark attacks was running slightly below average. Then the truly frightening story of Sept. 11 broke, and the sensational treatment of shark bites was widely panned as an overreaction.
Fast forward to Summer 2005, and conditions are ripe for a similar pattern to emerge. Florida might be just one shark bite away from another frenzy, scientists fear.
“I’m not saying these two shark attacks are not news,” said George Burgess, curator of the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida. “But each year we have 30 or so shark attacks in a year. This weekend’s attacks were numbers seven and eight. The year is half over. You know we’re going to have more.”
At Cape San Blas, where a shark Monday critically injured Craig Adam Hutto, 16, of Lebanon, Tenn., a handful of vacationing families ignored dreary skies and drizzling rain to wade gingerly back into the water after authorities reopened the beaches.
No one, however, wandered into water much deeper than their ankles.
“We’d go back in waist deep. We wouldn’t go back to the sandbar,” said Clive Veri, a 41-year-old banker from Joplin, Mo., referring to the sandbar Craig was fishing from when he was attacked. “We didn’t drive 1,200 miles to not play in the water.”
Craig’s right leg had to be amputated by doctors, who operated on the teenager again Tuesday to clean up the area around the wound. He was reported in stable condition at Panama City’s Bay Medical Center.
On Saturday, 14-year-old Jamie Marie Daigle of Gonzales, La., died from her injuries after her left leg was mutilated that day by a 6-foot bull shark about 100 miles away, near Destin.
Shark experts downplayed the timing of the attacks, calling it a highly unusual coincidence.
“There is not a trend here,” said Bob Hueter, director of the world’s largest shark-research center, at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota. “Sure, both these attacks apparently involved bull sharks, 6 feet to 8 feet long, that are usually very aggressive. … But, unfortunately, what we saw was some very bad luck.”
Doctors said it was too early to tell if Craig suffered any brain damage from blood loss. In 2001, a 9-year-old Mississippi boy, Jesse Arbogast, suffered severe brain damage from blood loss when a shark ripped off his arm while he swam near Pensacola.
Jesse’s injury was perhaps the most shocking attack that year and became a focal point of media coverage underscored when a Time magazine cover trumpeted the “Summer of the Shark.”
The already poor reputation of sharks has worsened since then. A 2003 survey by the National Aquarium in Baltimore showed 70 percent of Americans thought sharks are dangerous and that most think there are too many of them, although some shark populations in fact are shrinking.
“These attacks call up a primal fear in people,” said Pamela Shoemaker, a professor of media and popular culture at Syracuse University. “The media also is going to seize on the story because it is a statistical deviant.”
Burgess said he has been flooded with interview requests from news outlets across the nation and Europe. On Monday, he said he received 80 calls in just four hours, as TV news choppers buzzed the beaches in search of more sharks.
By early Tuesday, reporters, photographers and camera crews outnumbered beachgoers at Cape San Blas.
“These were dramatic attacks,” Burgess conceded. “But if the media focus continues on every little ankle-biter attack from here on, that’s going to be a problem for Florida.”
The state averaged about 30 attacks a year from 2000 to 2003 but had only 12 last year. Burgess attributed the drop to the four hurricanes that hit Florida last year, keeping beachgoers away.
With the July Fourth weekend approaching, Florida tourist officials also are scrambling to get word out that state waters are still safe for visitors.
Pam Dana, director of the state’s Office of Tourism, Trade and Economic Development, said officials are considering posting tips on avoiding shark attacks on the state’s VisitFlorida.com and MyFlorida.com Web sites, an approach used during the 2001 summer season.
In Gulf County, which relies heavily on its 43-mile coastline to keep itself afloat economically, leaders moved quickly to soothe any lingering fears from the attack.
The region’s scallop season starts Friday, and tourism officials are counting on the population to nearly quadruple.
Deputies, police officers and volunteer firefighters were handing out fliers with nearly a dozen tips on how to avoid sharks, said Paula Ramsey Pickett, the tourist development director here.
The first line reminded readers, “The relative risk of a shark attack is very small.”
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Both also can be reached at 850-222-5564.
