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Shark attack survivor presses her state for an alert system to keep people safe in the water

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Shark attack survivor presses her state for an alert system to keep people safe in the water
News

News

Shark attack survivor presses her state for an alert system to keep people safe in the water

2025-04-10 08:09 Last Updated At:08:10

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.

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.”

FILE - A man walks past a sign prohibiting water activity above Tide Beach after a shark attack in Solana Beach, Calif. Friday, April 25, 2008. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy, File)

FILE - A man walks past a sign prohibiting water activity above Tide Beach after a shark attack in Solana Beach, Calif. Friday, April 25, 2008. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy, File)

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Stock market today: US markets etch out small gains early after a Monday rout

2025-04-22 20:09 Last Updated At:20:10

Wall Street pointed higher early Tuesday, a day after skepticism about the strength and safety of U.S. investments due to President Donald Trump’s trade war, and his attacks on the Fed Chair Jerome Powell, sent markets sharply lower.

Futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.8% before the bell, far from recovering the loss of 2.4% Monday. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average also rose 0.8% and Nasdaq futures gained 0.9%. Both slumped more than 2% the day before as Trump stepped up his public criticism of Powell.

Trump has been demanding that the central bank lower its key interest rate to boost the economy. Trump called Powell “a major loser” and said that energy and grocery prices are “substantially lower" and that the central bank no longer needs to keep interest rates elevated to suppress inflation.

The Fed has resisted lowering rates quickly, which could reignite inflation after it soared to more than 9% during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic three years ago.

Any attempt to unseat Powell would likely set off a crisis in global financial markets. While Wall Street loves lower rates, largely because they boost stock prices, the bigger worry would be that a less independent Fed could struggle to keep inflation under control. Such a move could further weaken, if not kill, the United States’ reputation as the world’s safest place to keep cash.

Longer-term yields have been on the rise lately with doubts about the United States’ standing in the global economy. The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.43% overnight before settling at 4.39% in the morning. That's still up from 4.34% at the end of last week about 4% earlier this month, a substantial move for the bond market.

The U.S. dollar edged down to 140.24 Japanese yen from 140.80 yen. The dollar has been weakening against the yen and other currencies, and traded momentarily as low as 139 yen on Monday, a 52-week low.

In equities trading early Tuesday, First Solar jumped 7.2% after the Department of Commerce finalized harsher-than-expected solar tariffs on some southeast Asian communities.

Northrop Grumman tumbled 10.6% after it reported that its first-quarter sales fell from a year ago. The military contractor also saw its profit nearly halved as it charged a big loss related to higher manufacturing costs for its B-21 bomber program.

Technology companies, which have taken some of the biggest beatings during the recent market volatility, inched up in premarket Tuesday. Nvidia and Meta Platforms rose less than 1% before the bell.

Meta shares have declined for seven consecutive days, the longest losing streak for the company since April 2023.

One day after plummeting another 6%, Tesla shares inched up less than 1% in premarket ahead of its quarterly earnings report after the bell Tuesday.

Elon Musk's electric car company has already reported that its first-quarter car sales dropped by 13% from the same time last year. That decline occurred against a backdrop of vandalism, widespread protests and calls for a consumer boycott amid a backlash to Musk’s high-profile role in the White House overseeing a cost-cutting purge of U.S. government agencies.

Tesla shares are down about 40% since the beginning of 2025.

In Europe at midday, France's CAC 40 and German's DAX each declined 0.7%, while Britain's FTSE 100 was mostly unchanged.

Trading was cautious in Asia, where the benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 0.2% to finish at 34,220.60. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was virtually unchanged, inching down less than 0.1% to 7,816.70. South Korea's Kospi lost nearly 0.1% to 2,486.64. Hong Kong's Hang Seng added nearly 0.8% to 21,562.32, while the Shanghai Composite added 0.3% to 3,299.76.

Trump's tariffs and the retaliatory measures from China hang as a shadow over the region.

"Across Asia, there is undoubtedly a sense of urgency to get to the negotiation table even as striking a deal at an appropriate cost can be tough," said Tan Boon Heng, at Mizuho Bank's Asia & Oceania Treasury Department.

“China’s warning to countries not to resolve U.S. tariffs by striking deals at the expense of Beijing’s interests reveals the geo-economic polarization.”

In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude gained 93 cents to $63.34 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 88 cents to $67.14 a barrel.

——

Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top right, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top right, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A currency trader watches monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A currency trader watches monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

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