ANNA MARIA, Fla. — A local wing foil surfer came face to face with a shark about an hour south of Anna Maria Island last month. While the encounter was not deadly, the woman suffered a minor injury to her leg, multiple outlets report.
On Dec. 22, Erika Lane was skimming the murky waters for about an hour and a half before she felt something large swimming upon her, WWSB-TV reports. She said she could feel the turbulence of a big creature before her mast was bitten and pulled out from under her.
Immediately after, she felt teeth piercing into the skin of her left thigh, the Herald-Tribune said.
"As soon as I hit the water I was bitten on my thigh," Lane said on her Instagram account.
Lane recounted the story on her Instagram account in the hopes that it will help another surfer or anyone who encounters a shark in the ocean.
"Out of instinct I jumped on top of my floating wing to escape the chaos and get out of the water," Lane said.
It wasn't until she hopped back onto her foil that she realized the teeth marks and blood dripping from her thigh. Lane had been bitten by a shark. She quickly made it back to shore where she walked a half-mile up the beach to her truck.
Lane spoke with the Florida Program for Shark Research at the Florida Museum and experts "believe it was about a four to four and a half foot shark either Black Tip or a Spinner," based on the size of the bite.
While it's rare to see unprovoked attacks in Florida, the state ranked at the top for U.S. attacks in 2020. Florida recorded 33 shark attacks in 2020. Of those, three were fatal, according to the Florida Museum.