Shark attack survivor presses her state for an alert system to keep
people safe in the water
[April 10, 2025]
By KIM CHANDLER
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama teen who narrowly survived a fierce
shark attack last year said she hopes a proposed alert system before
state lawmakers can help keep others safe in the water.
Lulu Gribbin, now 16, was one of three people bitten by a shark on June
7, 2024, during a string of attacks off the Florida Panhandle. She lost
her left hand and a portion of her leg. On Wednesday, she asked Alabama
lawmakers to support a proposed shark attack alert system.
The bill by Republican Rep. David Faulkner would establish an alert
system, similar to the Amber Alert system, that would issue a notice to
the public when there's been an unprovoked shark attack in the vicinity.
“Ninety minutes before me, there was another shark attack a couple miles
down the coast,” Gribbin said. Had she known about that attack, she and
her friend would not have ventured into the water that day, she said.
“This bill will help prevent future attacks and accidents.”
The Alabama House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee advanced
the bill Wednesday. It now moves to the full Alabama House of
Representatives. The first of it's kind system
Gribbin and her friend had been diving for sand dollars before the
attack. They were riding the waves back to the beach when her friend
screamed, “shark!"
“I saw a big shadow, but we all just started swimming for our lives,”
She recalled. She said she tried to remain calm, remembering that sharks
were supposed to be attracted to frantic motion. Then the shark attacked
her and her friend.
"My hand was bitten first. I remember just lifting it out of the water,
and I was stunned because there was no hand there. I couldn’t feel it
because of all the shock I was in. Then the shark latched onto my leg,"
she recalled.

A man she describes as a hero ran to pull her from the water. She
blacked out and came to on the shore where a doctor and other medical
workers, who were on the beach that day, rushed to save her. “I remember
being focused just to keep my eyes open and to breathe, to just be able
to make it to the hospital,” she said.
Her lengthy recovery has been documented on social media. As she visited
the Alabama Statehouse, people frequently stopped to ask for photographs
and to tell her that her story has been an inspiration.
While sharks are commonly found in the waters off Alabama and Florida,
shark attacks are rare, said Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida
Museum of Natural History’s shark research program. He said there are
between 50 and 90 unprovoked bites around the world each year. And a
trio of bites in a single day in close proximity is extremely rare, he
said.
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Lulu Gribbin, second from left, an Alabama teenager who survived a
shark attack in 2024, speaks with attorney Charlanna Skaggs, second
from right, and Alabama lawmaker Rep. David Faulkner, right, at the
Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Ala., Wednesday, April 9, 2025.
Faulkner has proposed an alert system, named for Gribbin, that would
warn other beach goers when there has been an unprovoked shark
attack in the area. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler)
 He said, generally speaking, the
data shows that one shark bite does not increase the likelihood of
another happening soon. However, Naylor said weather conditions that
day likely brought an abundance of small fish closer to shore.
“The bait fish were very close into shore along that same beach and
sharks were following them. But on any day in Alabama, you can see
20 or 30 bull sharks 400 meters offshore, but they just don't
interact with the public because they are much farther away,” Naylor
said.
Naylor noted that rip currents kill far more people than sharks each
year. Four people were killed worldwide in shark attacks last year.
The U.S. Lifesaving Association estimated there are about 100 deaths
each year in the U.S. from rip currents.
While the proposal would only impact the Alabama coast, Faulkner
hopes other states will pursue similar systems or that federal
legislation would expand its use.
“There had been a shark attack just down the beach, and yet she had
no notice. And I felt like in this day and age, that’s something we
shouldn’t let happen,” Faulkner said.
The bill, which would name the alert system for Gribbin, was changed
to issue an alert only when an unprovoked attack occurred off the
coast.
An earlier version would have allowed an alert for an “imminent
danger” from sharks. There were concerns from beach communities that
language was too vague and could lead to an excessive alerts,
causing panic and potentially hurting the tourism industry.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Wednesday urged lawmakers to approve the
legislation, saying it will be an "added tool" to keep people safe,
calling the teen “an inspiration and an awesome example of courage.”
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