With the shark craze in full swing in television and movies, it's easy to make believe that sharks are funny (albeit dangerous) things.That got us thinking of an incident that happened many years ago when we still worked at the Brownsville Herald.
The news desk received a call of a shark attack at South Padre Island and sent me off with photog Ron Schade to see what the commotion was all about.
Since shark attacks on people were extremely rare, we were surprised to learn that a visitor from Mexico City had been wading in about two or three feet of water when she felt something bite her right leg.
She had tried to shake it off but then felt teeth pull the flesh right off her leg and realized she was being attacked by a shark. She screamed for help and her husband was able to pull her out of the water.
But not before a shark - a small one at that - had made off with a chunk of her ankle that left her bone visible. Local doctor Raul Rodriguez and his brother worked feverishly to save her limb and were able to stabilize her and put her on a plane back to Mexico.
The police chief said the shark was no more than two or three feet long, but that its teeth had lacerated the woman's leg like it was nothing.
The last reported shark attacks happened in September 5, 2017, when a woman reported she was attacked just off Bougainvillea beach access 14. Like the woman from Mexico, the woman was suffering from serious lacerations to her foot.
“The lady was in about knee-deep water and it took a bite out of her foot,” said Jim Pigg, then-South Padre Island beach patrol director.
The fishermen said that it was one of several they had caught off the isolated beaches.
With Labor Day coming and the crowds expected to swarm to the beaches for one last time before resuming the annual grind, a word to the wise: Sharks just don't exist in movies; watch your step.
5 comments:
Juan, my sources at the BVD (we promote JC Penney's second-hand men's underwear) were late in getting me the document I needed for this story. You beat me to it. I bow to Juan Montoya.
- Booby Weightman-Ramirez
@August 23, 2019 at 8:44 AM
recently used or washed i preffer recently used
These are baby bulls that feed on the bottom, mainly crabs. The adults can get nasty in deeper water.
JAWS watch out
Just when you thought you were safe to go out at night, you find that the scumbag Rene Oliveira is still driving the roads in a different car from the one that has the breath testing in. When will this scumbag be stopped.
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