The South Jetty, as shown in this locator map, is in the northern most part of New Smyrna Beach where surfers and sharks share the waters.NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- A 21-year-old surfer from DeBary paddling in the waves in the South Jetty, suffered the first shark bite this year season, Volusia County Beach Patrol Capt. Tammy Marris said earlier today.
The surfer, whose name was not immediately available, was bitten 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Marris said, adding he suffered a minor cut to his hand.
Volusia County had eight shark bites last year, most of them near the South Jetty, where sharks as long as 5 feet, are drawn to bait fish that swirl in the swollen surf.
Brevard County also had eight shark bites last year, tying Volusia County for most along the Florida Atlantic coastline.
Short Bio
Henry Frederick is publisher of Headline Surfer®, the award-winning 24/7 internet news outlet covering the Daytona Beach-Sanford-Orlando metro area via HeadlineSurfer.com since 2008. A longtime cops & courts reporter focused on breaking news & investigative reporting, Frederick is among the Sunshine State's most prolific daily news reporters, having amassed close to a hundred award-winning byline stories nearly evenly split in print and digital platforms. Frederick earned his Master of Arts in New Media Journalism with academic honors from Full Sail University in Winter Park in February 2019. He was a metro reporter with the Daytona Beach News-Journal for nearly a decade and then served as a city editor for the Taunton Daily Gazette in Taunton, Mass, while maintaining a residence in Central Florida. Prior to moving to Florida, Frederick was a metro reporter for the Rockland Journal-News in West Nyack, NY, for seven years. Headline Surfer was named the Sunshine State's top internet news site by the Florida Press Club in 2018.