Wow, I couldn't have made up a wackier story.  It should have said, Uncle and Park ranger's GUN save boys arm:

[url]http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/07/07/shark.attack/index.html[/url]

Yeah, I saw that. It's amazing that they were able to kill the shark and get the boys arm back.

Did they reattach the arm?

Yes, they were able to re-attatch the boys arm successfully.

Ticon, you need to edit your link.  Look at the end.  You transposed the l and the r.  Here is a case (out of millions you don't hear about) where a gun was involved in a good thing.  This sounds pretty gruesome.  Hope the boy does okay.

Aw, check the time Larry, had that post corrected 5 minutes prior to your post [:P]

Well shucks.  I guess I didn't type fast enough.  I did not complete my post until I read the article.

I sure wouldn't want to get in a wrestling match with that boys uncle.

Anyone who can subdue and bring ashore a decent sized shark by hand has got to be a bad ass. Sharks are pure muscle.

Maybe the shark was sick or injured.

Nah, probably just sidetracked with some sort of snack or something... [0j]

"Sharks are pure muscle."

Apparently, so was the uncle...

Of course this could have been avoided if he had only been swimming with a Glock, as ocean friendly as they are! :)

Last night's local news reported it as a 7 foot long bull shark.  Looks smaller in photo in article.  Still, that's a hell of a lot of shark.  2nd shark attack in that area in two years, but if you have ever flown low along our beaches, the water is full of them.  Bulls, sands, sand tigers, hammerheads, nurses and a few others occassionaly.  The kid was in really bad shape (that's an understatement!) and family was doing CPR was Rangers and EMT arrived.  Haven't caught any local news today so don't know how kid is doing now.

Then again, if my brother was supposed to be watching my daughter and anything happened to her and he came back unscathed...............

It happened at Ft. Pickins, which is at the West end of Santa Rosa Island. The water was murky, and the boy was in knee deep water. The Pensacola station (WEAR TV3) had video of the shark less than an hour after it was drug ashore by the uncle. The park ranger had shot it 4 times. It was still alive. They used a baton to wedge it's mouth open while a life guard pulled the arm out. The boy had already been life flighted to Baptist Hospital. The arm was taken by ambulance.
This attack was in an area that has lot's of sharks. I used to take SCUBA students there for thier first open water dives at the jetty's. You have strong tidal currents, and lot's of bait fish, plus cloudy, murky water. This is on the pass, or entrance to Pensacola Bay.
The shark was out about 15 yards when the uncle drug it ashore. The boy had bled out, no pulse or heart beat when he reached the hospital. Only blood on the brain. He had also been bitten in the hip, losing a large segment of tissue in the thigh. The child is still critical, and it is unknown if the arm was a success or not. Right now, they are unsure if the boy will make it or not. For the local slant, try www.pensacolanewsjournal.com

Yep, that happened just miles from where we spent the day fishing and swimming... Hope the lad makes it through...

My family has a place in Orange Beach, just across the AL/FL state line from where the incident took place and it amazes me how naive the folks are around here.

We have caught many, many sharks off Orange Beach, Gulf Shores and Pensacola Beaches. I also flew over our beaches after an eradication hop and let me tell you, it was not hard to find one. They are there and have been there. It is curious how they seem to be becoming more aggressive, or maybe it is just that the numbers of people have increased exponentially over the last few years...

I can say that me and my family grew up in and on Gulf Coast waters and have never had an incident... knock on wood!

It appears as though there may be some of my fellow Redneck Riviera folk here on AR-15.com, eh? Good to know!

If you get a chance to see the Animal Planets special on Bull Sharks, do....

Come on now, you know how much money the GS/OB and South Baldwin Chambers of Commerce have spent to get rid of the Redneck Riviera image?  Yes there are some others here, sounds like you, Stg44 and I are all in the immediate area.  Good to know there's locals here.

I don't care what the "educated professionals" tell us about sharks and their attack methods. I will not swim anywhere near the Pensacola Pass! I have caught so many freaking sharks over the years I have lost count! Bulls and black tips mostly. Many too big to bring in, or they bite through my custom steel leaders.When the boat stayed home due to "mechanical issues" we would go to the beach on NAS and make camp. We'd bait up with live hardtails and cast them into the ICW at the deepest parts we could get to..sit and wait for the show. Better yet, we'd flag down some daring jetski / waverider operator to tow our live bait way out!  Always common to brink in a few large blacktip sharks.Some large flounder in the fall too.
Kinda funny to be fighting a shark for what seems to be an eternity when a family will be wading by,"What do you think you caught?"..oh, I've been catching sharks all day....then the quickly get out of the water for the day! [;)]

Yep, I live between Milton and Pensacola. I work Navarre, Navarre Beach, Gulf Breeze. I remember as a kid, watching a man catch an 800 lb. Bull Shark off the old Pensacola Beach fishing pier at the old Casino site.
Back when I was diving right out of the Army, a couple of buds of mine would set up chum on bouys in the channel off Pickins, and powerhead sharks when they came to feed. We went to the old Russian Freighter during the shark fishing rodeo hunting a 15' Tiger that had been seen in the area, at night...too much liquid courage I guess. Good thing we didn't find it, or it us...
The biggest threat we have is in the almost 6 years since Hurricane's Erin and Opal, the washout at the beach set's up real rip currents. We had 5 death's by drowning last month in 1 day between P'Cola Beach and Destin.

Stg, you don't happen to work for the independent phone company down there do you?

No, I'm a sergeant with the sheriff's office. Bikini patrol/thong compliance section. :)

STG, I'm with BCSO CID across the line. Good to know ya! I had an interview with a suspect at yall's jail week before last, nice operation. All were courteous and professional. Also hats off to the investigator working the Navarre area, former Marine or Reservist, I think. Good guy and very willing to help. Ya'll have a good rep with us.

Heard a blurb about one of your units wrecking out delivering the arm... He is OK I trust...

Be safe!

Here in Australia we have many reported shark attacks a year. Aside from that many others go missing at the beach, and are never found (including the Prime Minister Harold Holt who went missing back in the 60s).

Personally I have had only one encounter with a  Grey Nurse (known as a Sand Tiger in the US) The shark ran into to me head on, about 3.5 metres in length. I reckon we scared the shit out of each other. It was in brackish water near a wier on the Hacking River in Sydney's south. I had been snorkeling. The shark carried on, and I made a cautious quick exit for shore.

I have a set of jaws from a 3.5 Tiger happily hanging in my garage (to my wifes disgust). About 45cm jaw to jaw. caught locally too, but not by me.

A couple of weeks ago some guys caught a 3 metre Tiger, she was gutted, and inside was the remains of some poor bloke. Strangly enough, with dental records, he was identified as a local of a local island who had disappeared. I hope he had drowned before he was eaten. But if he was taken alive, what away to go!

We have many sharks here, white pointer, mako, tiger, hammer head, grey nurse, port jackson, wobbygongs, bronze whaler, etc. Here it is just a way of life, and rules for bathers are:
-never swim alone
-never swim after a heavy rain
-never swim in thick cloud cover
-never swim early in the AM
-never swim in the evening and in the dark
-never swim with dogs or other animals; and
-don't use the ocean as a toilet

Honestly I reckon when in the ocean, sharks are my least worry. There is so many wierd creatures which bite and sting, some which can be fatal (blue ringed octopus, and sea snakes).

Local early morning news is now reporting that the little guy is suffering from renal shutdown.  He was moved to a local hospital that specializes in children yesterday.  He is still in critical condition.  For those of you that believe, say a prayer for him and his family.

All your arms are belong to us!

There have been a LOT of shark attacks on FL's gulf coast over the past months.

Those bull sharks loiter around river mouths where the water's murky, and can go a ways up into fresh water.  Very bad idea to go swimming around a river mouth on FL's gulf coast.

Beachboy, as long as the FloraBama and the Keg are standing, it will always be the Redneck Riviera to me! :)

I tell ya, we could turn the hands of time back about 15 years and keep our little secret to ourselves and I'd be a happier man... GS is just a few short years from being another s**thole like Panama City... IMHO, of course.

Thanks for the update, prayers said!

Generally we vacation on Santa Rosa a couple of times a year and we always go to Pickens.

But, one thing we do have is enough sense to stay out of the water near the pass and anywhere near Pickens for that matter.

Was just down there last October and the big problem we had was really hugh jelly fish and man o' war were everywhere.  One guy did catch a shark off the pier down by the Pearl though.

Yeah, my parents live about four miles down the beach from where the shark attack took place.  The actual beach is in front of Ft. Pickens.  Weird...

                                              Ballsy move for sure........

LA Times

http://www.latimes.com/wires/20010709/tCB00V2058.html

Monday, July 9, 2001

Shark Victim Suffering Kidney Failure

    PENSACOLA, Fla.-- An 8 -year-old boy whose arm was reattached after a
shark attack was suffering from kidney failure.
    Jesse Arbogast of Ocean Springs, Miss., was in critical but stable
condition late Sunday after undergoing dialysis, officials at Sacred Heart
Children's Hospital said.
    The boy was moved to Sacred Heart because Baptist Hospital, where
surgeons reattached his arm, is not equipped to treat kidney problems,
said Sacred Heart spokesman Clay DeStefano.
    "It was decided this morning based on the seriousness of his
condition that he needed to be transferred here," DeStefano said Sunday.
    The boy was attacked Friday evening while swimming at Gulf Islands
National Seashore near Fort Pickens in the Florida Panhandle.
    His uncle wrestled the 7 -foot-long bull shark to shore.
    "He's a big guy. He got hold of it and tossed it ashore," District
Ranger Supervisor John Bandurski said.
    Ranger Jared Klein then shot the shark four times with a 9mm pistol,
and pried its jaw open with a police baton. Volunteer firefighter Tony
Thomas used a clamp to pull the boy's severed arm out of the shark's
gullet.
    The boy had no pulse and no blood pressure when he was airlifted to
Baptist Hospital about 30 minutes after the attack, said Dr. Jack Tyson.
    Ian Rogers, the plastic surgeon who helped reattach the arm, had said
he was hopeful the boy could regain near normal use of his arm in 12 to 18
months, with extensive therapy.

Copyright 2001 Los Angeles Times

The child is at Sacred Heart Hospital Childrens Hospital in Pensacola. This is an outstanding childrens hospital. The odds are really stacked against the little guy. He bled out, was in cardiac arrest for 45 minutes. So damage to the brain, and organs is pretty much a foregone conclusion. Survival is the number one concern right now.
I still would like to meet the uncle, that now is a Man.

Five0-
I agree, I grew up spending all summers and week-ends in Orange Beach on Wolf Bay/Intercoastal side (grandmother was a Callaway)and on Fort Morgan Road.  FloraBama, Pink Pony and the old Gulf Gate Lodge, ah those were the days.
I was with the BCSO as a diver in the Sheriff's Flotilla when Hurricane Fredrick came through, one of the last people to leave Gulf Shores and one of the first back the next morning, soon after A.N.G.  
So, I truly understand the feeling about turning back the hands of time.  Been saying exactly the same thing about it being P.C.B. West for several years now.
It was a great place when it was a secret (more or less)

Never go to the ocean without a gun, and a very large knife or a tomahawk.

I think they would have saved more time if they had chopped the sharks head of, instead of shooting it, and then gutted it, instead of trying to pry the mouth open to get the arm out.

Of course those were probably the only tools they had.  But this should go as a warning to the rest of us to be prepared.

What a crazy story.  I can't believe that the uncle got the shark onto the beach.  It will be a shame if the boy ends up with brain damage.

I guess my services are needed once again...

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