According to the National Park Service, a 16-year-old male from Oak Ridge, North Carolina was bitten by a shark off Cape Hatteras National Seashore near Ramp 25.
It happened at 4:00pm on June 18th, 2020, while the boy was jumping over waves on a sandbar. The teenager’s father, Tim Arthur, said he was in the water when he heard his son scream from the shark biting down on his thigh.
They were about 25 feet away from the shoreline. His protective, fatherly instincts kicked in when he saw his son fighting the shark. Tim swam over to him and continuously kicked the shark until it let go of the boy’s thigh.
He helped his son get back to shore and fortunately, got the boy transported to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The staff at a medical center in Nags Head said they treated him and released him that night.
According to data from the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida, North Carolina tied for third with the most shark attacks of any state. In 2019 there were three shark attacks. An 8-year-old near Bald Head Island, a 17-year-old at Fort Macon Park, and a 19-year-old in Ocean Isle.