Ex-Herald chief ‘fortunate to have survived’ shark attack

The individual, later identified as 68-year-old male, was flown off the island for treatment at Vidant Medical Center in Greenville, North Carolina.

The attack is the seventh shark attack off the North Carolina coast since June, including one in Avon Beach last Friday when a 47-year-old man punched the shark that bit his right leg and lower back. Sometimes a wounded shark will go hurtling and twisting through the shallow waters at unfathomable speeds that take onlookers by surprise.

“Those were much scarier in that the sharks in each case did real damage to the victims and kept coming”, said Cahoon. It’s tempting to assume the worst when pictures of sharks start circulating online; plus it’s particularly troubling when the series of attacks has predominantly affected young people. We had taken many family vacations on OBX, starting about a dozen years ago.

She also attributed the swimmers getting too close to where people are fishing as one of the reasons why there has been an upsurge in the attacks.

“What about the shark?”

I didn’t bring home shark for our dinner that night – who needs to tempt karma? – but that “fresh” shark meat was the final proof of what I’d known all along. “We’re visitors.” There haven’t been any reported shark attacks at Wrightsville Beach.

A recent outbreak of shark attacks has gripped some regions of the East Coast with fear heading into the Fourth of July weekend, and experts assert that while the phenomenon is likely to be temporary, something “strange” is most certainly going on.

One animal keeper at Oglebay Park’s Good Zoo says you don’t have to change your plans, just change a few of your habits. “But more importantly, flashy jewelry can look just like glittering fish scales to a shark”.

But none of that discourages them from the rush they said they get pulling in the biggest sharks they can catch.

Except, once in a blue moon, human beach lovers could meet up with one of those famous “rogue sharks”.

Even though shark fishing is prohibited, unintentionally sharks seem to be what is caught pretty often.