Florida shark attack 2023: 2 men bitten by predators in 36 hours

Two separate incidents of shark attacks were reported less than 36 hours apart in Southern Florida last week.

The most recent one was reported by the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office where a 35-year-old angler was fishing off a dock in Summerland Key, an island in the Florida Keys around 8 p.m. when a shark was hooked and reeled up onto the dock. “The shark was reportedly out of the water and on the dock when it bit the angler,” the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post.

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The man, whose identity has not been revealed, was flown to Jackson South Medical Center in Miami for treatment. There is no information about his condition. 

 On Thursday afternoon, in a separate incident, a 20-year-old Miami-Dade County man was bitten by a shark while spearfishing off the coast of Marathon, according to the sheriff’s office. The man was airlifted and taken to the same hospital as the first one.

The man was later identified as Kevin Blanco. He said that bull shark bit him on the leg. “He actually bit me twice, and it was probably around anywhere, 9 or 10 feet, and about 500 pounds,” Blanco told CNN affiliate WSVN. “He came out of nowhere, 20 or 30 mph, and I just see the big gray figure of him just there, and I see it every time I close my eyes, no joke.”

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Blanco was attacked along with two other people. 

It is not common for someone to be bitten by a shark in Florida waters, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said. The bites are rarely life-threatening. There are more than 300 species of sharks in the world and only around a dozen of them have been involved in attacks on humans, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.