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A teenager suffered leg injuries and had to be airlifted to the hospital over the weekend after being bitten by something in the water off the Florida coast—but officials aren't sure what.
The 15-year-old boy was lobstering off his family's boat in Key Largo on Saturday morning when the incident occurred, the Miami Herald reported, citing local police.
He was then taken to the hospital with bites on his left calf and ankle as well as on his upper right thigh, said Bobby Dube, a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) spokesman, according to the Herald. The boy was in a stable condition on Saturday night.
One early report into the incident had described a potential shark attack, but the boy was not able to see what bit him.
Dube said that although a shark attack was possible, the animal could also have been a barracuda. He said: "I don't know. It's unconfirmed." The spokesman added the FWC does not investigate possible shark attacks.
It is not the first such incident to have taken place in Florida in recent days. Also on Saturday morning, a man was bitten on the foot at New Smyrna Beach in Florida's Volusia County.
He had just gotten off of his surfboard and was standing in the water when he was bitten on his right foot, Volusia County Beach Safety Ocean Rescue Captain Laura Warner told The Daytona Beach News-Journal.
The shark, described as very small at between 2 and 3 feet long, inflicted minor cuts and the man was treated at the scene. He was then able to drive away.
And earlier in 2021, an experienced Florida surfer recalled the moment she had to kick a shark after it bit her foot, also at New Smyrna Beach, and "wouldn't let go."
The surfer's foot was badly injured in the attack, leaving her needing surgery.
Florida has the highest number of confirmed unprovoked shark attacks in the U.S. by a wide margin, according to the University of Florida's International Shark Attack File. Volusia County has the highest number of such attacks out of all Florida counties.
The shark attack file's data shows there have been 868 confirmed unprovoked attacks in all of Florida since 1837, while Hawaii, the state with the next highest amount, has seen 176 in that time.
Across the U.S. as a whole, there were 33 total shark attacks in 2020, three of which were fatal.
In the same year, the shark attack file shows there were 129 alleged "shark-human interactions" worldwide, with 57 of those being unprovoked attacks and 39 provoked.
