PANAMA CITY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A Navy base employee is in critical condition after a shark attacked him during a lunchtime swim near a military marina in the Florida Panhandle.<\/p>\n
The incident happened on Monday at around 11:45 a.m. at the popular waterfront area on base, according to previous reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to Naval Support Activity Panama City Commanding Officer Tristan Oliveira, two staff members were swimming near the base marina during their lunch break when a shark attacked one of the men, severely injuring both of his arms.<\/p>\n Panama City Fire and Emergency Services rushed the victim, who is described as a man in his late twenties, to a local hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery, according to WJHG<\/a>. Officials with HCA Florida Gulf Coast Hospital said the man is now out of surgery and may be transferred to a trauma center for additional treatment.<\/p>\n The Bay County Sheriff’s Office<\/a>, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission<\/a>, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration<\/a> are investigating the incident.<\/p>\n While shark sightings are common in the Florida Panhandle during the summer, attacks are rare, according to NOAA research biologist Dr. John Carlson.<\/p>\n “This is the time of year sharks move into coastal waters, often to give birth,” Carlson told WJHG.<\/p>\n He said waters near Tyndall Air Force Base<\/a>, St. Joe Bay<\/a>, and Apalachicola Bay<\/a> serve as nursery areas for several shark species.<\/p>\n Despite their presence, Carlson said the risk of an attack remains extremely low: <\/p>\n You’re more likely to be injured by your lawnmower, bitten by a dog, or hit by a television set than attacked by a shark.Comment with Bubbles<\/p>\n JOIN THE CONVERSATION (4)<\/p>\n Carlson advises swimmers to avoid murky water, stay out of the water at dawn and dusk, and avoid areas where people are fishing. If a shark is spotted, he recommends calmly exiting the water.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PANAMA CITY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A Navy base employee is in critical condition after a shark attacked him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-302322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}