Wildlife officials revealed to a frightened public the fate of the shark that maimed two people on a Texas beach on July 4th.
The attack happened on South Padre Island, Texas, on Thursday morning, with the woman who got bit on the leg having to be hauled to shore by a team of rescuers.
Following the bloody incident, South Padre Island and Cameron County Parks officials located the shark, harnessed it and moved it back out into deeper waters so it won’t be an ongoing threat to beachgoers, KFDX-TV reported.
New helicopter footage released by the Texas Department of Public Safety shows officials flying directly over the shark as it swims through shallow waters right after the attack.
Identified as a bull shark, the animal was not harmed or physically injured over the course of this operation to get it back out to sea, according to Captain Dowdy from Texas Parks and Wildlife.
This image provided by Texas Department of Public Safety shows a shark close to the share in South Padre Island, Texas on Thursday, July 4, 2024
The shark swims right near an incoming wave, shortly after biting two people and encountering two others
Dowdy said the ‘unusual’ attack was likely caused by weather changes from incoming Hurricane Beryl, which will strike the Texas coastline sometime Monday as a Category 1 hurricane, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Bull sharks can reach up to 11 feet in length and have one of the most powerful bites in the animal kingdom, stronger pound-for-pound than the infamous great white shark.
A total of four people encountered the shark in the water, according to initial reports. Two people were bit and two people escaped with minor injuries.
One woman had a serious wound to her leg.
Footage of the attack shows the woman laying on the sand while a dorsal fin can be seen swimming back and forth near the shoreline.
Blood from her wound can be seen turning the water a dark red, while first responders wrap a tourniquet around her leg.
Blood from her wound can be seen turning the waters washing up on the beach a dark red, while first responders wrap a tourniquet around her leg
A dorsal fin can be seen swimming back and forth near the shoreline as the woman lays on the sand
The incident happened on South Padre Island, Texas, on Thursday morning and the woman had to be hauled to shore by a team of rescuers
Due to the shark, officers deployed drones, boats and helicopters to locate the predator and the city was also considering closing the beach
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Later, this woman was identified as Tabatha Sullivent, who was in the water with her daughter and husband when the shark preyed on them.
She said they were out past a sand bar when the shark followed her to shallow water and bit her calf, after which her husband Cary fought it off.
‘I turned around and saw something dark in the water. And I thought it was a big fish, and I was going to kick it away. That’s when it grabbed me,’ Sullivent told FOX Dallas-Fort Worth from a hospital bed.
The shark bit off her calf.
‘My leg is pretty much gone,’ she said. ‘They flushed it out today. It’s all the way to the bone. It did not go through the bone.’
Her husband, too, was bitten throughout the course of the attack, but his injuries were minor in comparison.
‘If my husband didn’t jump into action and everyone else on the beach. If I didn’t have people pulling me out – not just to pull me out but jumping between the shark and me – I don’t think it would’ve stopped,’ she said.
Tabatha Sullivent sits in a hospital bed after her calf was bitten off by a bull shark. Her husband, who bravely fought off the beast, sits next to her
Sullivent said that if her husband hadn’t jumped into action, along with all the others on the beach who pulled her in, the shark likely wouldn’t have stopped attacking her
Tabatha was taken to a nearby hospital where she is in stable condition. Her husband Cary Sullivent (right) remains by her side
The couple were at the beach celebrating their daughter Skylar’s 15th birthday.
Skylar set up a fundraising page on GoFundMe to help raise funds for her mother’s recovery. More than $4,600 has been donated so far.
Their daughter Skylar Sullivent shared an update on their condition later that evening on Facebook.
‘My mom is trying to get as much rest as she can and figure out the road ahead. Recovery will be a long process but I know she will get through it,’ Skylar wrote on Facebook.
Immediately after the attack, Texas Parks and Wildlife released a statement telling beachgoers that authorities were patrolling the beach by land, by boat and by air.
The city also considered closing the beach entirely to the public.
In March, a 14-foot great white shark was spotted near South Padre Island, according to local radio station KNFM.
But given that officials are reasonably confident that the culprit in the most recent attacks was a bull shark, it’s likely that this great white wasn’t involved.
Elisabeth Foley, the victim of a shark attack on Florida’s panhandle in June, is pictured left. Part of her arm had to be amputated
Lulu Gribbin, was one of the teen girls attacked by a shark just hours after Foley was bitten. The bites were so severe that surgeons needed to amputate her ‘right leg halfway up from her knee to her hip,’ according to a Facebook post written by her mother
This comes after two teenagers and a woman were attacked by a shark early last month in Walton Beach, Florida.
According to the Walton County Sheriff’s Office, 45-year-old Elisabeth Foley was bit by the marine animal in the water near Watersound Way and Coopersmith Lane at around 1:15pm.
She sustained ‘significant trauma to the midsection and pelvic area and amputation of her left lower arm,’ according to South Walton Fire District Fire Chief Ryan Crawford.
At around 3pm, officials responded to calls of another shark attack on two female teenagers, 15 and 17 years old that occurred four miles away from the first attack.
The teens were later identified as Lulu Gribbin, who lost a hand and a leg, and McCray Faust, who suffered injuries to her foot.
All three of the victims, who were visiting the area from other states, were attacked while they were swimming near the sandbar.