A North Carolina beachgoer was bitten by a shark Friday while trying to help other people avoid it.
The 47-year-old man was swimming near Avon, North Carolina, at around 11:40 a.m. with another adult and three children when he saw the shark nearby,
local station WTKR reported. He yelled “Shark!” and was helping the others get out of the water when he was bitten.
The man, whose name has not been released, suffered injuries to his back and leg that are believed to be non life-threatening. No one else was injured.
This was the fifth shark attack reported in the state this year. On Wednesday an 8-year-old boy suffered minor injuries from a shark bite,
Raleigh station WRAL reported. A shark bit a 13-year-old girl June 11 and took chunks out of her boogie board,
according to WTSP in Tampa Bay, Florida. On June 14, a 12-year-old girl lost part of her arm to a shark bite; two miles away, a 16-year-old boy lost part of his arm to a shark
just 20 minutes later.
As scary as they are, shark attacks are still rare, statistically speaking. In the United States between 1959 and 2010, about 33 times as many people died
from dog attacks, 76 times as many people died
from lightning strikes and 300 times as many people died
from boating accidents as from shark attacks, according to data from the Florida Museum of Natural History.
We’re also a much bigger threat to sharks than sharks are to us. Sharks killed 12 people worldwide in 2011, while humans kill an estimated
11,417 sharks per hour.
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