Wednesday’s incident marks the fourth shark attack in Volusia County in the span of a week.
Shortly before noon, the teen was standing in knee-deep water in Daytona Beach Shores when the shark bit his left foot, sending him to a hospital with injuries that were not considered life-threatening, according to Volusia County Beach Safety.
The type of shark is unknown.
The attack comes only two days after another 14-year-old was bitten about 6 miles down the coast in Ponce Inlet, McClatchy News reported.
The teen was attending junior lifeguard camp when he dove into the water and landed on top of a shark, which bit his calf, officials said.
After the incident, he told WOFL he doesn’t think there’s “really anything to be scared of.”
“Because I think that it’s something really rare that can happen,” he told the outlet. “And if it’s happened once, I doubt it’s going to happen again.”
On July 4, an Ohio tourist was bitten while playing football, and the next day, a man from Sarasota was bitten while wading in an inner tube, McClatchy News reported.
Volusia County has been unofficially dubbed the “shark bite capital of the world,” according to The Daytona Beach News-Journal, and data suggests that name may have some merit.
The International Shark Attack File has recorded 351 unprovoked attacks in Volusia County, far more than any other county in Florida and more than any other state in the U.S.
