A Lakeland woman survived a scary encounter with a shark over the weekend off at Cocoa Beach.

What You Need To Know

  • Katie Woods was bitten several times by a juvenile bull shark off Cocoa Beach

  • The shark nearly punctured an artery

  • A shark expert provides tips for staying safe in shark territory

  • How to minimize risk of shark bite

The shark, which was later identified as a juvenile bull shark, bit Katie Woods several times between her foot and ankle, nearly puncturing an artery.

“It was my first time at the beach,” Woods said. “I walked out into the water. I was shuffling like I always do, and I kicked something. I looked down, and I could see this body between my legs.”

Woods says she had to wade through the water to reach her friends for help.

“My friends were up there, and they didn’t hear me. When I got close enough, they saw the blood,” she said. “They were able to make it to the main road and flag down some help.”

A shark expert offers up some tips for staying safe if you happen to come across the ocean's top predator.

“90% of sharks people never see because they’re in deep water, more than 200 meters down,” said Gavin Naylor, Director of Florida Program for Shark Research at the University of Florida. “If you see shark in the water, you want to calmly but purposely walk or swim away, facing the shark. Also, the frequencies that are created when you splash around in the water attract sharks.”

Naylor, who is  a biologist, said his program studies sharks around the world, including shark bites.

“Most commonly on the eastern side of Florida we see bites in shallow water by black tip sharks. Just north of Cocoa Beach, we have a site for the highest incidences of shark bites in the world — Smyrna beach,” he explained. ”The habitat there is that there’s people surfing and sharks come in and out of the inlet, and when they bump into people they can’t see very well so they bite whatever they contact.”

Naylor also said that wearing shiny jewelry in these shark-populated areas could reflect in the water as boney fish, which is an appetizing treat to a shark.

Woods says her painful encounter with a bull shark won't scare her away from the beaches for good.

“We’re in their territory,” she said. “I still love the water and plan to be back to the beach as soon as I can.”

Woods is recovering at home and says she is thankful for the first responders who came to her aid that day.