PONCE INLET -- A 26-year-old Spaniard swimming off the Beach Avenue Approach off Ponce Inlet became the seventh shark-bite victim of 2009, but he did not require stitches and was treated at the scene, according to the Florida Beach Patrol.
All but two of the bites have occurred in New Smyrna Beach near the South Jetty where bait fish are the meal choice of the 4- and 5-foot sharks.
The swimmer, whose name was not readily available, was swimming in the 4600 block of Atlantic Avenue, a mile north of the Beach Street approach when he was bitten on the left foot, with bite marks that left an impression in his skin consistent with those of a shark, said Scott Petersohn, spokesman for the Volusia County Beach Patrol.