Shark bite off LakeWorth sends surfer to hospital

A shark bit amale surfer off Lake Worth beach on Sunday, Palm Beach County Fire Rescue said.

Hewas bitten in the arm just before 2 p.m., a Fire Rescue official said.

The man, who was not identified, was treated by lifeguards before being taken to a hospital.

Peter Pereira, an art teacher who lives in Delray Beach, was sitting on the patio of Benny’s On the Beach, just a few feet away from where lifeguards brought the man ashore.

“He started going white, which was really really scary,” Pereira recalled. "It was just see.”

Pereira said he saw gashes on man’s upper arm as rescuers treated his wounds. The surfer was given an oxygen mask to keep him conscious, Pereira said. The lifeguards were “heroic” in how they handled the situation, Pereira said.

It is unclear what type of sharkwas involved.

Shark attacks are extremely rare. But the bull shark, along with the tiger shark and the great white, is among the species considered most dangerous. Although the bull shark in this case was a small one, estimated at 4 to 5 feet, the species can grow to 11 feet ghastly thing to and has a reputation for aggression.

Bull sharks have been blamed or suspected in several South Florida attacks, including the fatal attack on a kiteboarder off Stuart in 2010, as well as a non-fatal bite of a spearfisherman last year off Riviera Beach and a 2014 attack on a woman in an inner tubein the Intracoastal Waterway in Fort Lauderdale, who was bitten on the leg.

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