Second Shark Bite Incident Reported in 2 Days

The unidentified teen was bitten on the right calf about 12:30 p.m. Wednesday as he and three other teens were swimming off the Topsail Reef Condos near the New River Inlet.

An eyewitness on the beach apparently saw the shark and yelled a warning to the teens. As they headed toward shore, he was bitten.

He was treated at Onslow Memorial Hospital and released.

On Tuesday, a woman on vacation at Atlantic Beach was bitten by a shark while wading in the state's first reported attack this year.

The 30-year-old woman from Ohio, whose name wasn't immediately released, was in waist-deep water near the Tar Landing Villas on Atlantic Beach when she was bitten, said town Fire Chief Adam Snyder.

The woman felt something bite her right thigh and began kicking, Snyder said. Then the shark bit her left foot, leaving triangular shaped teeth marks, he said.

Others on the beach helped the woman from the water until rescue workers arrived. She was treated at Carteret General Hospital in Morehead City and was expected to be released the same day.

The woman was released from the hospital Wednesday.

The attack was the first in the state since September, when a 16-year-old surfer suffered a deep gash to his left thigh by a shark at Onslow Beach. The teen needed about 10 stitches to close the wound.

According to the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of Natural History, there have been 22 shark attacks in North Carolina since 1993, but only one was fatal.

Snyder said authorities think the shark intended to bite a fish and accidentally bit the woman in the murky waters.

"We didn't even close the beaches," he said, calling it an isolated incident.

No sharks were seen before or after the attack, Snyder said.

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