INJURED – 19 July 2011 — Ocracoke Beach, Ocracoke Island, North Carolina, US – boogie boarder attacked

Lucy Mangum, 6, shark attack victim speaks to reporters from her hospital room

Lucy Mangum, 6, was bitten by a shark (species not reported) on the lower right leg and her foot, while Boogie boarding in shallow water (reportedly only 18 inches deep) with her father and mother. The incident happened around 5pm on Tuesday 19 July 2011 at Ocracoke Beach, Ocracoke Island, North Carolina, in the US. The island is a national park in the Outer Banks.

“I heard her scream so I immediately turned towards her and at that point saw the shark right next to her,” her mom told media. “I ran over to her and at this point it hadn’t really crossed my mind that she had been bitten, I just wanted to get her out of the water… I saw that she was injured pretty badly… it was a pretty big gash.”

Her father, Craig, who was swimming further out said: “I ran over and … we got her up on the beach and we had Jordan [Lucy’s mom] move her hand and the entire lower leg… filleted itself open… It was a pretty significant wound and I noticed there was an arterial bleed there and I just realized right away we were going to have to get her to a medical center.”

“I only saw its tail,” Lucy told media.

Lucy was airlifted to Pitt County Memorial Hospital in Greenville.

Doctors said Lucy suffered extensive damage to muscle, ligaments and blood vessels but luckily avoided major nerve damage. She is expected to make a full recovery.

Sources:
ABC News
Online Journal

PIC source:
still from ABC News video

SCARED – 6 February 2010 – Turners Beach, Yamba, New South Wales, Australia – boogie boarder attacked

Dean Everson, 18, was boogie boarding in big surf off Turners Beach, Yamba, New South Wales, Australia, when a shark literally “leapt out of the wave” to attack him. He hit it with his board which seemed to distract it. He escaped without injury. The incident happened on Saturday afternoon 6 February 2010.

He said he believed the shark was 2.5 metre white pointer.

He’s quoted in the Queensland Times as saying:

“The shark threw itself out of the wave at me,” Dean said.

“I was in shock.”

He said the potential killer was so close he got a good view of its teeth.

“All I could think to do was throw the board at it,” he said yesterday.

The board made contact with the shark and probably distracted it, but the ordeal was not over.

Dean was trying desperately to swim back to shore and was struggling against the waves, getting caught in the same rip that almost claimed the life of a young boy a few days earlier.

“It was like being in a washing machine with an eight foot shark,” he said.

It took him about 10 minutes to get out of the water and onto the rocks.

“The set was big and I was probably under water for about 45 seconds at one time,” Dean said.

“The waves kept coming and I was being pulled by the rip and pushed by the waves.

“I was ready for it. I thought I was done for.

“I yelled at the other surfers to let them know.”

When he finally scrambled onto the rocks, horrified onlookers told Dean he was lucky to be alive.

“One guy said that he had been watching the shark move around and he thought it was following me,” he said.

Sources:

Queensland Times

PICS source

Queensland Times

INJURED — 1 February 2010 — Oreti Beach, Invercargill, South Island, New Zealand — boogieboarder attacked

Lydia Ward, 14, was bitten on the waist by what is believed to be a 1.5 metre broad-nosed sevengill shark while boogie boarding at Oreti beach near Invercargill on New Zealand’s South Island. The incident occured in the evening of 1 February 2010.

She struck the shark with her boogie board after it had bitten through her wetsuit and sunk its teeth into her hip.

Lydia was chest deep in water, waiting to catch a last good wave alongside 10-year-old brother  when she stepped on something slippery on the sea floor.

“At first I wasn’t quite sure what it was. And I was trying to say to myself it was just a piece of driftwood,” she said.

“Then I stood on it again, and I just looked at my brother’s face and he said ‘whoa’. And I looked to my side and I just saw this massive grey thing twisting in the water.”

The shark lunged at her and bit her. Lydia thinks the adrenalin flowing through her body might have prevented her from feeling anything.

“So I hit it with the end of my boogie board and that scared it away.”

She could see blood in the water “but I couldn’t run … so it was quite nerve-racking.

“I only realised it bit me when I hopped out of the water and saw the bite marks through my wetsuit.”

Her injuries were not serious.

Sources:
New Zealand Herald