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A Florida man is reportedly recovering from being bitten by a shark while snorkeling with friends last weekend.
The incident occurred off Boca Chita Key in the Florida Keys’ Biscayne Bay in the late morning hours of Saturday, Oct. 25, the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue confirmed to Fox News Digital.
Emergency personnel responded to a medical call regarding an animal bite at around 11:30 a.m., authorities said. Officials airlifted the man to a local hospital.
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The victim has been identified as Yosvany Echevarria, 46, according to CBS News Miami. He told the outlet he moved to the United States from Cuba three years ago, and was snorkeling with friends in the water when the shark bit him more than a half-dozen times.
“He could have ripped my arm off,” Echevarria told the outlet in Spanish. “I was scared. I was in a lot of pain. We were swimming there by the beach. I was diving in the water and snorkeling, and a shark lunged at me, at my hands.”
Echevarria added that he received 27 stitches as a result of the attack, and suffered severe injuries to his arm, CBS News Miami reported.
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“We got out because we were close to the shore, and we called someone to pick us up,” Echevarria said.
As of this week, there have been 51 reported shark attacks throughout the country this year, according to trackingsharks.com. Of those incidents, 10 reported attacks have occurred in the Sunshine State – with some taking place in Hollywood Beach, located just 20 miles from Miami, and southwest Florida’s Boca Grande.
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Last year, there were 71 reported bites – including 47 unprovoked attacks – worldwide, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File. Data indicates that 28 of the unprovoked attacks occurred in the United States, with Florida accounting for the country’s most unprovoked bites after 14 people reported incidents last year.
“My advice to people is if they are going to get in the water, they need to be careful. It could have been much worse,” Echevarria reportedly said. “I was lucky it was just bites. He could have ripped my arm off.”
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