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Girl, 14, killed in shark attack

Authorities in the Panhandle close about 20 miles of beaches along the gulf to swimming shortly afterward.

DESTIN - A 14-year-old girl died Saturday after a shark attacked her while she and a companion were swimming in the Gulf of Mexico, authorities said.

The teenagers were swimming on boogie boards about 100 yards offshore when they noticed a dark shadow in the water, authorities said.

"One of the swimmers was bitten. It was the lower portions of her body," said Walton County Sheriff's spokeswoman Donna Shank. The other swimmer wasn't injured.

Both girls swam to shore, and the victim was taken to a hospital where she was pronounced dead, Shank said. The girl was on vacation from Gonzales, La., but her name was not immediately released.

The attack happened near the Camping on the Gulf Holiday Travel Park, about 45 miles east of Pensacola on the Florida Panhandle.

Patrick O'Neill, the campground's general manager, refused to comment.

It wasn't clear what kind of shark attacked the girl, said Stan Kirkland, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

"The girl was some distance off from the shore," Kirkland said. "I don't think anyone got a good view of the shark."

Authorities closed about 20 miles of beaches to swimming shortly after the attack. It's the height of the summer tourism season along the coast, and the beaches were packed with people.

"Obviously it was a shark, and the young lady, she was mauled pretty badly. It was a bad attack," said George Burgess, curator of the International Shark Attack File located at University of Florida. "Certainly it was a reasonably large shark."

Burgess, who was heading to the scene to investigate, said it was the first shark attack of any kind recorded in Walton County.

"It's not a renegade shark looking for humans," Burgess said. "Probably it was a one-shot deal and it's not likely to attack again."

Twelve-year-old Robert Goodwin of St. Louis, Mo., said he was in the gulf during the attack and ordered out of the water.

"I didn't know that when I was told to get out it was a shark," he said. "I was like, what? Wow that's not cool."

Goodwin's father, Mark, said the family comes every year and "it was just an eerie feeling to see folks sitting there on the beach instead" of swimming.

On the beach, people talked on their cell phones, while authorities patrolled to make sure no one ventured into the water.

"This doesn't happen very often at all - very, very seldom," said Mike McKee, front desk supervisor at the nearby Hilton Sandestin Beach Resort and Spa.

Florida had the largest number of documented shark attacks worldwide in 2003 with 30, according to statistics compiled by the American Elasmobranch Society and the Florida Museum of Natural History. There were 12 attacks off the coast of Florida last year.

In 2001, 8-year-old Jessie Arbogast was attacked by a 61/2-foot, 200-pound bull shark at Langdon Beach, near Pensacola. Arbogast was left brain damaged after a shark bit through his thigh and ripped off his right arm above the elbow.

[Last modified June 26, 2005, 00:33:18]