PENSACOLA, Fla. — As summer crowds return to water, two recent shark bites in the Florida Panhandle serve as a reminder to stay smart in the water.<\/p>\n
Two shark bites in less than a week.<\/p>\n
One on Pensacola Beach involving a fisherman trying to remove a shark from his line. The other left a swimmer critically injured near Panama City.<\/p>\n
“Obviously the two are unrelated because, unfortunately, the attack on the navy staff member was what we call an unprovoked attack, but the first was handling a shark trying to take it off the line; it’s a different set of circumstances, so the shark, of course, is going to try to defend itself when it’s being taken off the hook,” NOAA Research Fish Biologist John Carlson said. <\/p>\n
While the cases happened less than a week apart, NOAA fish biologist John Carlson says attacks are still very uncommon.<\/p>\n
“I’m thinking in terms of statistics and comparing being attacked by a shark or being bit by a shark as opposed to other things that are dangerous; you’re more likely to be injured by your lawn mower or be struck by lightning,” Carlson said. <\/p>\n
According to the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File, in 2025 there were a total of 65 unprovoked bites worldwide — 11 of those in Florida.<\/p>\n
Still, Carlson says there are steps swimmers can take to lower their risk– like to avoid swimming during dawn or dusk when water visibility is low or near a fishing pier.<\/p>\n
“If you’re swimming in an area where somebody’s fishing, it’s generally not a good idea because you know the person that’s fishing on the beach or from a pier may not necessarily be fishing for sharks, but if they’re catching a fish, that struggling fish in the water may bring a shark into the area,” Carlson said. <\/p>\n
Carlson also says to take off any shiny jewelry, as the reflections may mimic an injured fish.<\/p>\n
For anglers– it is important to take extra caution when dealing with hooked sharks– carefully removing the hook or cutting the line as close as possible.<\/p>\n
Carlson adds sharks are a natural part of Florida’s water, and most encounters end with zero injuries.<\/p>\n
“They’re not at the beach to look for humans; if that was the case, the number of incidents we’d have would be exponentially higher,” Carlson said. <\/p>\n
If you see a shark, the best thing to do is calmly exit the water and alert others in the area.<\/p>\n
If you witness a shark bite, the best thing to do is call 911 immediately.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PENSACOLA, Fla. — As summer crowds return to water, two recent shark bites in the Florida Panhandle serve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-302840","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\/302840","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=302840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}