Sophie Lewis is a social media producer and trending writer for CBS News, focusing on space and climate change.

The 23-year-old competitive surfer was bitten by a shark on the arm while surfing near the Jacksonville Beach Pier. // hmpg_ads.push(c); window.adSetOthAT && window.adSetOthAT('kvblogname=news;kvcategory=news;kvpub=aol;kvpubmarket=us;kvpubsection=news;kvcmsid=bsd:23789226;kveditags=animals:myrtle-beach:nature:shark-attacks:sharks:south-carolina;kventryid=23789226;kvblogger=alexandra-lasker;');

The 17-year-old lost one leg and two fingers during the attack, but was saved by her father punching the shark until it let her go. Between 2000-2019, there were 74 shark bites reported in the Palmetto State.

If you see any corrections, please feel free to contact Tracking Sharks. };

tfleming@postandcourier.com, By Tommy Braswell Video shows the shark being brought close to shore as a crowd gathered to catch a glimpse of the creature.

var a = document.getElementById("state-indicator"); var divID = "#" + obj.divName “And they aren’t allowed to catch sharks anyways — although I don’t know how you stop them if you are putting bait out there that they want to nibble on.”, Abel said adding any level of opportunity for a shark’s “exquisite” sense of smell to be triggered can create danger for humans, although he cautioned bait is not the sharks preferred form of “lunch.”, “When there is a lot of the bait fish in the water, we have a hard time catching them with the bait we use. Sunshine and clouds mixed. At first, she thought it might have been a part of a boat that was riding the current toward the sand. South Carolina is among the top 5 states in the U.S. when it comes to shark attacks — but it registered only one bite in 2019, and this is the first along the Grand Strand in 2020. if ($(divID).length) { Video shows the shark being brought close to shore as a crowd gathered to catch a glimpse of the creature. Now What? Sporting a severely swollen arm, with emergency crew stating that the could see one of her muscles through the laceration, Stowers was taken to South Strand Hospital, where an X-ray showed no bone damage. You have permission to edit this article. “It was an awesome sight, but scary.”. Coastal Carolina professor Daniel Abel with undergraduate Rachel Hildebrand and graduate student Andrew Sitlinger after the research crew hauled in a sandbar shark. 15 in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll, No. While Stowers’ husband, Brad, wrapped a towel around her bleeding arm, a pair of Lack’s Beach Service lifeguards responded to Stowers’ injury around 2:15 p.m. on Aug. 19, calling for emergency back-up.

c.div = divId; Some people fishing along North Myrtle Beach managed to catch a shark Sunday. “While events like this are rare, we make sure we are covered when we know help might be a bit slower getting there,” Lack-Chickering said. Abel points to the murky water that lines the Grand Strand as a key contributor to keeping sharks in the area, as well as continued climate change — an always controversial topic, although Abel doesn’t think so when it comes to shark migration. var yaftConf = { AOL.cobrand = "amp-bon-article"; Submit a News Tip. window._newsroom = window._newsroom || []; Beachgoer Tara Savedge, of Richmond, Va., told WBTW she was visiting the popular tourist destination with her family when she witnessed the spectacle. The attack was caught on video, showing O’Rourke’s struggle to stay above water on his surfboard while the shark swam around him. "I saw my husband kind of pointing down at the beach to me and then he made a shark fin with his hands over his head," she told the outlet.

Due to language barriers, it is not possible in all cases to find exact locations of shark attacks. AOL.articleOverlayActive = false; At only 5-foot-3, wading into the surf has been commonplace on her multiple vacation trips to the Grand Strand from her native Pittsburgh — never fearing a thing, more focused on keeping her two children in line and within arm’s length.

This month, there have been three confirmed shark attacks in North Carolina. } (Photo: Anthony Marsh, Alamy), Sharks are a group of fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. AOL = {}; Sharks seen feeding and jumping out of water off Myrtle Beach A group of sharks engaged in a feeding frenzy close to the shore at Myrtle Beach, S.C., treated visitors to a wild show Monday morning.