A shark bit a 67-year-old man in the leg over the weekend as he was kite surging off the beaches of Key West, Florida, officials say.
Police were called to Garrison Bight Marina shortly before 2 p.m. City fire-rescue paramedics were applying a tourniquet to the leg of the victim, identified as Kevin Carlton Scott, a resident of Key West.
A shark photographed off the coast of Florida. (University of Florida)
The man’s wife, 63-year-old Laurie Scott, told first responders her husband was kiteboarding around six miles offshore in Blue Fish Channel when the shark attacked him. She said she was in their boat and could hear his screams.
Laurie Scott said she got her husband into the boat, called 911, and headed back to shore.
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A police incident obtained by The Miami Herald report says Scott had "lacerations to his right calf consistent with [a] shark bite."
Kevin Scott was transferred to Lower Keys Medical Center before a helicopter took him to Jackson South Medical Center in Kendall.
Sargassum, a seaweed-like algae, collects on a beach in Key West Beach, Florida, on September 18, 2020. (DANIEL SLIM/AFP via Getty Images)
The incident report quoted Laurie Scott as telling police her husband is "an experienced boat captain and an experienced kiteboarder."
Shark attacks on humans are relatively rare when considering the number of people who flock to the beach every year. The Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark File lists 57 unprovoked attacks worldwide for all of 2022 – a drop from the previous year.
The bulk of these attacks were in the United States, specifically in Florida, accounting for around 40%. According to the findings, swimmers and waders accounted for the majority of these incidents.