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CAPE FEAR MEMORIAL BRIDGE CLOSURE: UPDATES, RESOURCES, AND CONTEXT

Third Shark Attack in Brunswick County within Days Prompts Monitoring from the Air and On the Water

Wikimedia Commons
Tiger sharks, Bull sharks, and Great Whites are some of the larger species found off the North Carolina Coast.

A third shark attack in less than a week has shaken the small beach communities along the Brunswick County Coast.  Two of the attacks happened the same afternoon near Oak Island as a withering heat wave continues to blanket the southeast.

The first call to 9-1-1 came just after 4:30 yesterday afternoon.  A thirteen-year-old girl had serious injuries to an arm and a leg.  Just an hour and 11 minutes later, a second call about a sixteen-year-old boy with his arm taken off sent emergency crews rushing back to the same beach.  Witnesses say both kids were in waist-deep water.

Late last week, a thirteen-year-old escaped serious injury while on a boogie board in nearby Ocean Isle Beach.  Officials say the board, which had a large chunk taken out, may have protected her.

The beach is open to swimmers on Monday.  Officials say they’re monitoring the area from the air and in the water throughout the day.  No word yet on whether monitoring will continue past Monday.

After the attacks yesterday afternoon, authorities said they spotted two large sharks near the beach.

1 PM update from Oak Island Town Manager Tim Holleman:

Oak Island Town Manager Tim Holleman says while officials don’t yet know the cause of the attacks, they are cancelling a surf camp scheduled for this week.  And they're urging fisherman not to bait the water with fish parts. 

"We’ve had unconfirmed reports of chumming for sharks and shark-fishing.  At this time, we don’t believe we can actually stop that, but we will be trying to follow up on those to see if we can make the fisherman a little bit more aware of what’s going on and to try to deter those activities."

Whether the Town has the legal right to close the beaches, is an open question, according to Holleman.

Rachel hosts and produces CoastLine, an award-winning hourlong conversation featuring artists, humanitarians, scholars, and innovators in North Carolina. The show airs Wednesdays at noon and Sundays at 4 pm on 91.3 FM WHQR Public Media. It's also available as a podcast; just search CoastLine WHQR. You can reach her at rachellh@whqr.org.