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Compiled from Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 19, 2000
Officials warn boaters against feeding dolphin
SARASOTA -- Federal officials want to halt the spirit of giving -- at least on the waterways where Beggar the dolphin bobs from boat to boat, looking for handouts.
It's illegal and it's dangerous to feed dolphins, federal officials say. Especially for the dolphin, which can become used to being hand fed and stop hunting on its own. Plus, this dolphin sometimes bites.
Beggar, who patrols a stretch of water near the Venice Inlet soliciting the softhearted, also has bitten people. Some of the injuries have required medical attention.
The Marine Mammal Protection Act forbids feeding or harassing wild dolphins. Violators risk a year behind bars and a $20,000 fine.
Marine wildlife officers have installed a sign near the waterway explaining the law.
Visitor gets stitched up after shark bites leg
BONITA SPRINGS -- A British tourist was recuperating Saturday from a shark bite that wounded his right leg, requiring more than 100 stitches.
Colin Shadforth of Lincolnshire, England, had at least 30 wounds on his calf, said Dr. William Burkey at Lee Memorial Hospital where Shadforth was treated Friday.
"It clamped down on me and wouldn't let go," said Shadforth, 73, a retired general practitioner who has been a visitor to the southwest Florida Gulf Coast for 23 years.
Shadforth was swimming at Bonita Beach.
He said he tried to get a look at the attacker, but the water was murky and he could only see what he described as a 4- to 5-foot fish.
Paramedic Bill Richardson said he counted three to four puncture wounds that were severe and a tear in Shadforth's calf muscle.
Bob Hueter, director of Mote Marine Laboratory's Center for Shark Research at Sarasota, said it probably was a small sharpnose or blacktip shark seen along the Gulf Coast beaches.
FORT PIERCE -- The youngest sister of Kimberly Bergalis, who died of AIDS in 1991 at age 23 after contracting the disease from her dentist during a dental procedure, has died in a car crash.
Sondra Bergalis, 21, a senior at Florida State University, was killed in a car crash before dawn Friday in Tallahassee.
According to police reports, Bergalis was driving east in the westbound lane of Apalachee Parkway near Magnolia Drive at 2:42 a.m when she collided head-on with a car driven by Thomas Edward Clarke Jr., 24, of Tallahassee.
Neither car was going above the posted 45-mph speed limit, according to investigator John Pretti of the Tallahassee Police Department, but Bergalis wasn't wearing a seat belt. She was dead at the scene, Pretti said.
Clarke, who was wearing a seat belt, was driving with a suspended license, Pretti said. He said Clarke now faces DUI charges.
Bergalis' father, George Bergalis, is the director of finance for the city of Fort Pierce.