Shark attacks on Pensacola Beach are rare despite two shark bites in Walton

The Pensacola Journal’s stance on reports of sharks attacking humans:

“We have never found anyone who can say from personal experience that a shark would attack or eat a living human being.”

Yes, our writers wrote that over a century ago, and while it may not exactly be “Dewey defeats Truman,” it is, frankly, wrong.

The claim was part of an editorial written on January 15, 1915, by editorial writers at the Pensacola Journal during a months-long newspaper dispute between the Journal, which claimed sharks did not attack humans, and writers at the St. Augustine Record and the Lakeland Telegram, who promoted the myth of the “man-eating shark” – the term frequently used in the war of words between the newspaper and its respective readers. Apparently these writers were unaware that women also liked the Gulf waters and beaches.

Of course, the Pensacola Journal, now the Pensacola News Journal, believes that sharks can attack, although it is rare. In fact, in 1928, the Pensacola Journal acknowledged that attacks do occur on rare occasions, in an article with the odd headline: “Man-eating sharks rarely attack humans, scientists say.”

But it does happen. Just, again, rarely. The most recent shark attacks in the Gulf of Mexico have occurred in the waters off Walton County to the east, but the last attack in the Gulf waters off Pensacola Beach and Escambia and Santa Rosa counties occurred more than two decades ago.

Last month, two teenagers and a woman were injured in two shark attacks less than two hours apart in the waters of the Gulf of Walton County. The woman lost her left forearm and suffered injuries to other parts of her body. A 15-year-old girl who was on vacation with her mother lost her left hand and right leg in the attack. Both attacks occurred between Miramar Beach and Panama City Beach on the Gulf of Mexico.

But the most notable attack in the waters around Escambia or Santa Rosa – from Fort Pickens on the western tip of Santa Rosa Island to the Gulf Islands National Seashore in the east – was the gruesome attack on 8-year-old Jessie Arbogast, who lost his right arm and part of his right thigh when he was attacked in shallow waters at Langdon Beach near Fort Pickens on July 6, 2001. Arbogast, who was visiting the beach with his family from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, also suffered brain damage in the attack by a 6-foot bull shark that was pulled ashore by the boy’s uncle. A park ranger who arrived on the scene shot the shark, opened its mouth and removed the arm from the shark’s esophagus. Doctors were able to sew the arm back on.

It was a shocking attack that made headlines around the world, and the news media was abuzz with graphic reports and speculation about the attack, which occurred just before sunset that Friday, two days after the city’s Fourth of July celebrations. Officials with the Gulf Islands National Seashore speculated that the attack occurred at dusk, when visibility is poor and sharks are out foraging.

The last fatal shark attack in Escambia or Santa Rosa County waters – and there was doubt at the time whether there was an attack – occurred in November 1911, when night watchman Jules Antoine fell from the British steamer Aldersgate. Hours later, crew members spotted a shark in the waters near Pensacola Bay. The Pensacola Journal described what more than 50 people on board observed:

“He had seized the body by the belly, with the arms and head lying on one side of the body and the lower limbs protruding on the other. The shark remained on the surface for a moment or two, then sank below the surface, and a few moments later resurfaced. The position of the body in the shark’s mouth had changed, and the monster attempted to swallow it feet first, in which it partially succeeded.” Later, the Journal writer acknowledged that Antoine was “an old man” and may have been drowned and then eaten by the shark.

Two years earlier, in 1909, another death was reported aboard a sea vessel. In August 1909, a crew member of a fishing boat fell. The crew member reported seeing a shark attack the man as they attempted to rescue him. This attack occurred in the morning near what is now Naval Air Station Pensacola. Aside from these two deaths, there has not been a single shark-related death in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties for over 100 years.

Dave Greenwood, director of the Escambia County Water Safety Division, has led lifeguards at Pensacola Beach for decades. He said that on rare occasions when people are bitten by a shark, it is usually just one or more bites, not sustained attacks.

He said sharks “usually swim away” after an encounter and “don’t hunt humans.” He said most of the sharks seen on Pensacola Beach are sand sharks and they are sometimes seen near shore hunting non-human prey.

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“They don’t have hands,” Greenwood said, “so they feel with their teeth.”

Sometimes that results in tragic bites that leave bodies and lives forever scarred. Still, Greenwood said there are far more dangerous dangers in the mysterious Gulf of Mexico.

“People should be more concerned about the most common and obvious cause of death in the Gulf – drowning.” He said if beachgoers viewed drowning the way most view the potential threat of sharks, “nobody would go in the water.”

According to the Florida Museum’s International Shark Attack File, the odds of drowning in the United States are 1 in 3.5 million. The odds of being attacked by a shark are 1 in 11.5 million. The odds of being killed in a shark attack are less than 1 in 264.1 million.

Since 1882, there have been seven confirmed unprovoked shark attacks in Escambia County and just one in Santa Rosa County. By comparison, in Volusia County on Florida’s east coast, known as the “shark bite capital of the world,” 351 confirmed unprovoked shark attacks have been reported, according to the International Shark Attack File.

According to the report, the first recorded shark bite in Escambia County occurred in 1882. Antoine’s death in 1911 is attributed to the shark in the report, and another shark attack in Escambia County waters did not occur until 1981, when a snorkeler was attacked while spearfishing near Fort Pickens. The report states that the 19-year-old man suffered a bite to the thigh in that attack. It was a provoked attack.

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In July 1990, Scott Holloway, then 17, was bitten while surfing off Perdido Key. A shark pulled him underwater by the ankle and then released him. He had to receive 15 stitches, but said at the time that he was more “embarrassed” because the waves he was attacked in were so small.

In 1999, 30-year-old nurse Lisa Alexander was bitten by a shark as she and others waded in the water just feet from shore, “playing amidst a school of baitfish,” according to the Pensacola News Journal report. The July 4 attack left cuts on her knee and ankle about half an inch deep. That attack occurred on Langdon Beach, near where Jessie Arbogast would be attacked just two years later.

A young girl died in 2005 after being attacked and killed while on a boogie board about 100 yards off the coast of Sandestin in Walton County. There have also been several smaller shark incidents in Orange Beach and Gulf Shores, Alabama.

“I see them every now and then when I swim,” Greenwood said. “It’s never been a problem. I tell people if they want to be 100 percent safe, don’t go in the water. There’s always a risk, but the biggest risk isn’t from sharks.”

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