Shark Attacks, Bloodies Girl

P I N E   I S L A N D, N.C., July 8, 2000 -- A girl vacationing with her family onthe Outer Banks was attacked by a shark in shallow water, leavingher with a 9-inch crescent-shaped gash that required more than 300stitches.

“I thought that someone was grabbing me,” 12-year-old AshleyWalker of Chillicothe, Ohio, said Friday of the attack offCurrituck a day earlier. “It didn’t really hurt.”

Ashley had never seen the ocean until she arrived here July 1with a group of 15 friends and relatives who rented a cottage onthe northern barrier island.

Blood in the Water

She was playing in the surf at about 4:30 p.m. when she feltsomething brush against her, and then a tug. Blood filled thewater, but she didn’t realize how badly she’d been hurt until shereached the shore and saw the gash on her right calf.

Marshall Cherry, Corolla fire chief and director of CorollaOcean Rescue, said no one saw the fish, but a doctor and emergencypersonnel had little doubt it was a shark.

“We are assuming it’s a tiger shark,” Cherry said. He guessedthe shark had been following fish that came in with Gulf Streamwaters and got closer than usual to shore.

Ashley sustained no torn muscles or ligaments and is expected tomake a complete recovery, said her mother, Wanda Walker. But Ashleysaid once was enough for her.

“I’m not going back in,” she said.

Another AttackIn Corpus Christi, Texas, a 5year-old boy was bitten on hislower left leg Friday by a shark at Mustang Ridge State Park.

According to Corpus Christi television station KIII, theunidentified boy is being treated at Driscoll Children’s Hospital.

A physician was on the beach at the time of the attackand helped secure the boy’s injury.