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FredR23 t1_j7dee3x wrote

Reply to comment by 008Zulu in Teenage girl killed by shark while jet skiing in Australia by AldoTheeApache

About 30 years ago, I was on vacation at Myrtle Beach. A little boy paddled out to watch dolphins more closely. He was on an inflatable, with his legs in the water.

Sharks follow behind dolphin pods, watching for opportunities to eat older, sick, or younger dolphins.

Chomped the kid's leg off at the knee, while I was in a pool overlooking the sea. It was one of those vacation spots where parents could pretty safely leave their kids to their own devices - and my family (absent at the time) didn't believe me until it was shown on the news that night.

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sharkfilespodcast t1_j7dna63 wrote

From the GSAF database there are six cases of boys bitten by sharks at Myrtle Beach between 1986 and 2010. Each received puncture wounds and/or cuts/lacerations, but none of the cases involved a leg amputation. Your family might have been right to be skeptical...

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FredR23 t1_j7dr2yj wrote

I recall it being reported as an amputation, and that likelihood being the thrust of the news coverage - but maybe it wasn't a foregone conclusion and they managed to save it. I didn't want to focus on it, as it was a vacation - and I was around the same age as the victim. On a separate year, a body was found floating the the pool I had watched the rescue from... it wasn't the luckiest of spots to stay, I guess.

To be clear - the skepticism from my family was that there was any shark attack at all, but I appreciate your fact check regardless.

Six is a much higher and more concerning number than I would have guessed for the region - so thanks also for the warning!

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