(YULEE, Fla.) — A man was fishing in Florida when a shark bit him, severely injuring his arm, officials said.
The man, who is in his 40s, was on a boat at the time of the attack, which unfolded around 11 a.m. Friday at West Rock near the port of Fernandina, which is north of Jacksonville near the Florida-Georgia border, Nassau County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Alicia Tarancon said.
A responding deputy boarded the man’s boat and applied a tourniquet to his right arm to slow the bleeding, Tarancon said.
The deputy then drove the boat to shore, where rescue crews were waiting, Tarancon said.
The victim was airlifted to a hospital in critical condition, Tarancon said. He’s expected to recover, Tarancon added.
This attack comes after a well-known surfer and lifeguard was killed by a shark in Hawaii on Sunday.
Tamayo Perry, 49, had been a lifeguard with Honolulu Ocean Safety since 2016. He was a local surf coach and competed for years in the Pipeline Master Trials, according to his official bio on his coaching site. Perry appeared in the 2002 movie “Blue Crush,” along with episodes of “Hawaii Five-O” and “The Bridge,” according to IMDb.
“The world knew Tamayo as a surfer and an actor, but to those who knew him best, he was a man of deep faith … now taken too soon,” his wife, Emilia Perry, told ABC News in an exclusive interview. “I feel so upset and devastated. But I also have a weird calmness in my heart knowing that he’s in a better place.”
ABC News’ Kori Skillman contributed to this report.
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