While swimming in waist-deep water with his church group at Surfside Beach yesterday, a 15-year-old Needville boy was bitten on the leg and hand by what was estimated to be a four-foot blacktip shark. This is the first confirmed shark attack at Surfside in more than two decades, one of only 19 in the area during the past 100 years.
Sharks are not uncommon along the Texas coast, especially in warm-water months, and a four-footer is probably on the short side of average along our beachfront. As many sharks as there are, however, direct encounters with people are extremely rare. Most often, bites occur in off-color water when the animals mistake a swimmer's movement for some sort of prey. That happens because sharks are hard-wired in their tiny brains to think almost anything might be food until they take a bite and determine otherwise.
The teen did the right thing when he reacted to the bite on his leg by aggressively beating the shark with both hands. He suffered one more bite, to the hand, but was successful in turning the shark away. His friends helped him to shore and administered first-aid. H
So, what are your odds of being attacked by a shark in Texas waters? In a word: slim. From 1911 through 2010, counting the billions of times swimmers and surfers and wade-fishermen and divers and others shared the water with the ocean's highest-level predators, there were fewer than three dozen confirmed attacks in all of Texas and, among them, only two fatalities.
Sharks are out there, probably a little closer and bigger and more numerous than you'd prefer. Be cautious and respectful, but don't let their presence keep you out of the water this summer.
