Two Youths Lose Limbs after Successive Shark Bites in North Carolina Waters

Two youths are stable after losing their limbs due to separate shark bites in Oak Island, North Carolina.

The local officials reported on Sunday that at around 4:12 p.m., a 12-year-old girl was attacked by a shark and sustained very serious injuries. Roughly an hour and a half later, at 5:51 p.m., a 16-year-old boy was also attacked by a shark in a separate incident east of the first case.

"You've got this nice beach scene going on, and the next moment is just a nightmare," beach goer, Steve Bouser told Star News Online. Bouser recalled people yelling, "Get out of the water, get out of the water."

Both victims were airlifted to the New Hanover Regional Medical Center in N.C., the spokesperson, Martha Harlan, said. Both of the youths arrived in critical condition. Their statuses were upgraded to fair condition by 11:30 p.m. Sunday night, Harlan told the Washington Post in a phone interview.

The girl had her left arm amputated below the elbow and also suffered lower-left-leg tissue damage, but a leg amputation is reportedly not necessary. The boy's left arm was amputated below the shoulder. Both of the victims were visiting from out of town.

Harlan and Oak Island Town Manager Tim Holloman stated that shark attacks are uncommon in the area. Holloman stated that they will be monitoring the "highly unusual" situation. He added that the beaches will remain opened but beach goers are encouraged to stay on land.

"People shouldn't be scared to go in the water, but they should be dutifully cautious," George Burgess, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research at the University of Florida's Florida Museum of Natural History, said to Star News Online. "Obviously there's at least one shark out there that's prone to biting and has sufficient size to have caused very serious injuries."

Burgess stated that he has only heard of two other cases where there were successive shark bites. One of the cases was in Florida more than a decade ago and the other was in Egypt roughly three to four years ago. The museum's numbers revealed that since 2005, there have been 25 shark attacks, with none of them being fatal.

Burgess added that in this state, the sharks tend to be blacktip and spinner sharks that are about six to seven feet long. Typically when a shark bites a human, it is a case of mistaken identity. Once the shark realizes that the prey does not taste like fish, it will usually move on.

"Sharks do not normally aim for humans as part of their normal eating routine," he said before acknowledging that these bites appear to be "very much intentional by sharks."

Burgess believes that the culprit has to be another species, such as the bull or tiger shark, which are known to be more aggressive. Bull sharks can grow to be about 12 feet long and tiger sharks can grow up to 17 feet. These sharks tend to go after larger prey like humans and have teeth that can rip through flesh and bones more easily than the blacktip or spinner shark. However, with the limited information, it is unclear what kind of shark attacked these two youths. Officials also do not know if it was the same shark that bit both of the humans.

This is the third shark attack in Brunswick County since Thursday. In Thursday's incident, the 13-year-old girl, who was attacked in Ocean Isle Beach, did not sustain serious injuries.