Beaches with bite

Sharks attack seven people this year in the busy Volusia surf.

By ROBIN MITCHELL

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 11, 2000

The lifeguards at Ormond Beach had just descended from their high perches overlooking the Atlantic when something chomped on Anthony Zent's right leg.

And bit again. It was a shark.

Zent, who was swimming in water over his head, "had to punch it in the head to get it to let go," said Joe Wooden, Deputy Beach Chief of the Volusia County Beach Patrol.

The 41-year-old Zent, who lives just across the Intracoastal Waterway in Holly Hill, made his way to the surf line where someone came to his assistance and flagged a passing beach patrol truck.

"We was bleeding pretty badly," said Wooden. "It was just a scoop and run for us to get him to the hospital."

The shark attack about 6 p.m. Sunday was the seventh this year in Volusia County. Two were within minutes of each other on July 4, a few miles south at New Smyrna Beach. Volusia led the world with nine of the 58 reported unprovoked attacks in 1999, according to the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida.

"This is very typical for the summer months on this coast of Florida," said Wooden. "The water warms up, people go to the beach, the sharks come to shore to feed on bait fish ... ."

George Burgess, director of the shark attack file, calls it "just an odds game."

"It's a good time for humans and sharks to be in the water," he said. "The human part of the equation is that school's out and there are lots of people at the beach. The chances are greatly enhanced." The odds are best in Volusia County, also home to Daytona Beach. More shark attacks -- 99 -- were recorded in Volusia than anywhere else in the state from 1882 through 1999. The counties of Brevard, 54 attacks in the same period, and Palm Beach, 45, are second and third.

Why Volusia County?

A convergence of a lot of people and a lot of sharks. The greater Daytona Beach area gets 10-million beach visitors a year, said Wooden. Enough to warrant a staff of 250 lifeguards. It's a surfer's mecca.

Though nearshore shark populations have plunged in recent years due to overfishing, more people are going in the water, said Burgess.

"We do notice a gradual increase in the number of attacks in the last decades," he said.

"On top of that," says Burgess, "our activities in the water are becoming more active. It's gone from the time when my father took me to the beach and he'd sit there with a beer and I'd wiggle my toes in the water. Now, we're more likely to be on a board, out in the surf."

Burgess said Sunday's attack was more vicious than most. Two bites -- a 15-inch bite above Zent's right knee and an 8-inch bite in his right calf -- are unusual because most shark bites are hit-and-run mistakes. A shark bites, realizes its error and moves on.

"You have two choices," said Burgess. "You don't go in the water or you go in the water and accept that risk, though it's a small one. It's a wilderness experience." On June 20, not far from the site of Sunday's attack, 52-year-old Jacob Alegood of Valrico in Hillsborough County suffered a 3- to 4-inch cut on his right ankle. Lifeguards said it was likely a shark bite. Alegood was in waist-deep water.

The most recent shark attack before Sunday was Thursday off Pine Island, N.C., when a 12-year-old girl vacationing with her family was attacked by a shark in shallow water. Her 9-inch crescent-shaped bite required more than 300 stitches.

The last shark-related fatality in Florida was in November 1998 when 9-year-old James Willie Tellasmon of Vero Beach was killed on a beach outing with his mother and a family friend.

Zent was listed in fair condition Monday at Halifax Medical Center.

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