Two men were bitten by sharks in separate incidents in southern Florida in the last week, officials said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A 35-year-old man fishing off a dock in Summerland Key, an island in the Florida Keys, was reportedly bitten in the foot by a shark, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said Saturday. The shark was reportedly out of the water and on the dock when it bit the fisherman on Friday around 8 p.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The man was flown to a hospital for treatment. Officials did not specify his condition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A 20-year-old Miami-Dade County man was reportedly bitten in the leg by a shark on Thursday afternoon in Marathon, which is also in the Florida Keys, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said. He was attacked while spearfishing with two other people.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The man was brought ashore in a private boat, officials said. A helicopter then picked him up and transported him to a hospital in Miami for treatment. Officials also did not specify his condition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nI just see a big gray figure of him just there, and I see it every time I close my eyes.<\/span>Kevin Blanco<\/span>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The man, identified by CBS Miami as Kevin Blanco, said he was bitten twice<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I just see a big gray figure of him just there, and I see it every time I close my eyes,” Blanco said. “It was a bull shark, and it was probably around nine to ten feet, probably around 500 pounds.”<\/p>\n
How often do shark attacks happen \u2014 and where are they most common? Experts weigh in<\/a><\/p>\n
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission<\/a>, it’s very rare for someone to be bitten by a shark in Florida waters. The agency said bites are rarely life-threatening. Only around a dozen of the more than 300 species of sharks in the world have been involved in attacks on humans<\/a>, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.<\/p>\n
Florida has topped global charts in the number of shark bites for decades, the University of Florida’s International Shark Attack File<\/a> shows. Around 39% of shark bites in the U.S. in 2022 happened in Florida.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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