Woman bitten by shark is year's first victim

ATLANTIC BEACH -- A woman vacationing from Ohio became this year's first reported victim of a shark attack in North Carolina. She was bitten on the thigh and foot Tuesday while wading at Atlantic Beach.

Fire Chief Adam Snyder said the woman was in waist-deep water near the Tar Landing Villas about two miles east of the town's boardwalk about 1 p.m., when she felt something bite at her right thigh.

He said she began kicking and the shark clamped down on her left foot, leaving triangular shaped teeth marks.

Based on the size of the bite, he said, the shark was thought to be about 5 feet long.

He said other people on the beach helped her from the water and tended to her injuries until rescue personnel arrived.

"She was very calm," Snyder said. "She was doing well."

The 30-year-old woman, whom authorities declined to identify, was treated at Carteret General Hospital in Morehead City. She was scheduled to be released Tuesday, a hospital spokeswoman said.

The incident was the first in North Carolina since September, when a teenager was bitten while surfing at Onslow Beach. The Associated Press reported that it took about 10 stitches to close a wound on the youth's thigh.

The International Shark Attack File maintained by the Florida Museum of Natural History counts 22 in North Carolina since 1993, one of them fatal.

The most recent fatality was in 2001, when a Russian couple vacationing at Hatteras Island were attacked in the surf. The man died on the beach, but the woman, who lost her foot, survived.

Snyder said authorities considered the attack Tuesday to be an isolated incident that was "a case of mistaken identity."

He said the water was murky and officials think the shark intended to bite at a fish.

"We didn't even close the beaches," he said.

He said there were no sightings of sharks before or after the attack.