JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A 22-year-old from Gainesville said he needed 30 stitches Wednesday after he was bitten by a shark while surfing at Vilano Beach.
David Morrison Jr. told News4Jax he was lying on his board about 4:20 p.m. paddling at least 20 yards from shore. He said he felt a tug on his leg and saw a shark with a "mouth the size of a basketball" biting him.
"I was just paddling around, trying to find a good spot to surf and I felt a handful of knives just stab into my foot," said Morrison.
He said he paddled to shore and was taken by a friend to Flagler Hospital.The hospital staff to sew up three deep gashes across Morrison's heel and he was also treated for the row of bite marks across the top of his foot.
"I was pretty terrified because the water was really murky. I didn't know where the shark had went. I didn't know how big it was. I didn't know how much I really needed to be afraid," he said.
Morrison said UF experts told him it was a 5-6 foot black tip reef shark that bit him.
This was the seventh shark bite along Northeast Florida beaches this year and the fifth in September. This was the second reported shark bite at Vilano Beach within two weeks.