Key Points
Authorities are using boats to patrol the ocean and warning swimmers about sharks this weekend along Floridas Gulf Coast, where a woman and two teenage girls were hurt in two separate shark attacks on Friday...
The attacks off beaches in the Florida Panhandle led authorities to temporarily close several beaches to swimmers on Friday..
In Walton County, the sheriffs office, fire department and the states wildlife agency were working together to patrol the water with boats and the shore with vehicles, the South Walton Fire District said in an update Saturday..
The first attack happened Friday afternoon when a woman was bitten by a shark near WaterSound Beach, the Walton County Sheriffs Office said..
Theres no way of knowing whether it was one shark or two separate ones involved in Fridays attacks, but there are more sharks in the Gulf of Mexico than in past years, Chapman said.. Theres definitely been a recovery of sharks in the Gulf after many years of overfishing, he said..
