Orange Beach Fire Rescue aided in a shark-bite incident after a man fell off of his watercraft near the Florida state line on Tuesday afternoon.
Initially labeled as “sea-doo accident,” the rescue squad responded to the call with a boat and rescue equipment.
With the help of others on the beach, the man managed to ride the craft back to the shore.
“When they got there, people on the beach had his foot elevated and shirts wrapped around the wound,” Fire Chief Forney Howard said. “He fell off near Flora-Bama. He was bleeding pretty bad.”
Medics on the scene assessed the unidentified man’s injury, assigning the need for surgery. With four major lacerations around his ankle, he was airlifted to Baptist Hospital in Pensacola.
Initially described as a barracuda bite by the fire department, the hospital determined that a shark had caused the injury.
“We hadn’t heard any recent reports of sharks in the area,” Howard said. “That’s the only reason we thought it might be a barracuda.”
The last reported shark attack in the area occurred in 2004. No fatal attacks have been reported in the last decade.
http://www.baldwincountynow.com/articles/2011/06/23/local_news/doc4e035bf2abe84499768428.txt
