Shark Attacks Boat; No One Injured

A shark damaged a 22-foot pleasure craft in Pensacola Bay, the second attack in Gulf Coast waters in less than a week, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.

No one was injured in the attack on Tuesday, which took place 25 miles east of Gulf Shores, where two swimmers were attacked by a bull shark Friday, Coast Guard spokesman Charles Clark said.

The Pensacola, Fla.-area boaters, whom the Coast Guard did not identify, saw a large shadow in the water about 2:30 p.m. as they were sailing west of Pensacola Beach, Clark said.

The boaters said that as they moved closer, the shadow looked like an 8-foot bull shark, he said. The shark apparently lunged at the rear of the hull, ripping its rear swim platform.

Two men were injured in Friday’s attack--Alabama’s first confirmed shark attack in 25 years--prompting officials to shut down a 30-mile stretch of beach at the height of tourist season. The beach is to reopen at noon on Saturday.

Chuck Anderson, 44, lost his right arm above the elbow in the shark attack. Richard Watley, 55, was bitten on his right hip and right arm.

Gulf Islands National Seashore Ranger John Bandurski said that beach would remain open despite Tuesday’s incident.

“It’s just really, really unusual,” said Bob Shipp, head of the University of South Alabama’s marine sciences department. “It happens every once in a great while. But the danger of getting caught in an undertow is conservatively 1,000 times greater than that of being eaten by a shark.”