Shark Attacks in North Carolina

Why North Carolina has one of the busiest shark records north of Florida

Two currents meet off Cape Hatteras. The Gulf Stream carries tropical water and tropical sharks north along the edge of the continental shelf, and the cold Labrador Current pushes down from the north to meet it. The mixing zone is one of the richest fishing grounds in the western Atlantic, and it sits within sight of some of the most heavily used beaches in the American South. Behind the barrier islands lie Pamlico and Albemarle sounds, vast, shallow, brackish estuaries that serve as nurseries for bull sharks, sandbar sharks, blacktips and spinner sharks. In summer those sharks, and the menhaden schools they follow, move through the inlets and along the ocean beaches at exactly the time when the beaches are full.

That is the setting for a record of 123 entries, 115 of them dated after 1900. What stands out is how recent most of it is. The decades before 1990 contribute a few entries each, many of them ship losses and old newspaper accounts. The 1990s contribute 12, the 2000s 32 and the 2010s 36, and the 2020s already hold 11. Some of that rise is better reporting, but most of it is more people in the water: coastal tourism on the Outer Banks, the Crystal Coast and the Cape Fear beaches has multiplied several times over since the 1980s, and the sharks have not gone anywhere.

The other thing that stands out is how survivable the record is. Of 79 incidents since 2000, 2 were fatal, and in one of them the database notes that shark involvement before death was not confirmed, while in the other the only species clue is a large white shark filmed on a nearby wreck two days earlier. Most entries describe lacerations or puncture wounds to a foot, calf or hand, the signature of a small shark, often a juvenile blacktip or sandbar, mistaking a limb for a fish in murky water. The severe cases, the ones that make national news, are the bull sharks, and they cluster in the hottest weeks of June and July.

Where the incidents happened, beach by beach and county by county

Every North Carolina row carries a beach or town and, for most of the modern record, a county, so the geography below is read straight from the table. Three counties tie at the top with 21 rows each: Brunswick, in the far south-west, with no deaths and the newest entries; Carteret, on the Crystal Coast, with 4 fatal rows; and New Hanover, around Wilmington, with one. Dare County on the Outer Banks has 12 rows and one death, Pender 9, Onslow 6, Hyde 4 with one death, Craven 3, Currituck 2 with one death and Pasquotank a single fatal row from 1881. The seasonal pattern is the same everywhere: since 2000, 17 incidents in June, 29 in July, 20 in August and 6 in September, and only 7 in all the other months put together.

• The Brunswick beaches: Oak Island, Holden, Ocean Isle, Sunset and Bald Head IslandThe busiest corner of the modern file and the site of its worst injuries. On 14 June 2015 at Oak Island a sixteen-year-old wading at 17:51 had an arm amputated below the shoulder and a twelve-year-old wading at 16:12 lost her left arm at the elbow with severe leg injuries, both by bull sharks; the same beach logged a nine-year-old with a minor shoulder injury in August 2023. Ocean Isle has six rows, none fatal: a seven-year-old's calf bitten in June 2021, a surfer's right foot cut in June 2019, a boogie boarder's foot nipped by a 4-foot shark in June 2015, a wader with numerous leg punctures in June 2012, an unconfirmed case in July 2012 and a child bitten behind the knee in August 1980. Holden Beach has six of its own between 1940 and 2013, including a 10-foot shark that lacerated an angler's thigh in June 1940 and a foot nipped by a 6-foot grey shark in July 2000. Sunset Beach holds the newest entry in the state, a 26-year-old swimmer with a gash to the lower left leg on 29 May 2025, plus a body surfer's ankle bitten by a shark pup in July 2019 and a foot bitten by a possible juvenile tiger shark in July 2014. Bald Head Island has four rows, two of them on 5 August 2018, one said to involve a blacktip. The county's oldest cases are a toe severed at Smithville, now Southport, in 1870, a hand lacerated at Southport in 1900 and a hooked shark that rammed a boat near the mouth of the Cape Fear River in 1895.
• The Cape Fear beaches, New Hanover County: Wrightsville, Carolina Beach, Kure and MasonboroTwenty-one rows, the latest tagged with the county from 2014, plus a fifteen-year-old standing at Wrightsville Beach whose lower left leg was bitten on 27 July 2021. Wrightsville Beach itself has six entries: that 2021 case, unconfirmed hand abrasions in August 2011, a 4-to-5-foot sand tiger that lacerated a thirteen-year-old's forearm in July 2010, a nine-year-old with calf, foot and hand bitten by a 4-to-5-foot shark, possibly a bull, on 4 July 2002, a surfer's upper arm lacerated in October 2000 and a right foot bitten by a sand shark in August 1995, with a surfer's foot lacerated off the Oceanic Pier in July 2000 on top. Carolina Beach adds a 6-foot shark that lacerated a wrist and forearm off Texas Avenue in August 2005, a thirteen-year-old's forearm and wrist in July 2004, a 2008 body-surfing collision that may have been a dolphin and a 1995 scuba death in which the bites were post-mortem. Masonboro Island and its inlet hold six rows from 1986 to 2014, among them a kite boarder's foot and a body surfer's hand in 2014, and the county's one fatal row is a diver lost between Wrightsville Beach and Carolina Beach in October 1989 with shark involvement suspected but not confirmed. Kure Beach (a possible 5-to-6-foot sand tiger, August 2011), Figure Eight Island (surfers in 2010 and 2014) and Fort Fisher (a surfer in 1999 and a captive sand shark at the aquarium in 2007) complete the list.
• The Crystal Coast, Carteret County: Emerald Isle, Atlantic Beach and Fort MaconTwenty-one rows and four fatal ones, three of them old: a swimmer killed at Salter Path, Atlantic Beach, in July 1957 with the knee bitten by a white shark, a swimmer killed at Ocracoke Inlet in May 1945 with a large gash to the thigh, a wader whose body was never recovered at Davis Shore east of Beaufort in July 1905, and the wreck of the Aphrodite at Cedar Island in October 1864. Emerald Isle has six rows and its pier two more: a surfer's knee and foot in October 2020 with shark involvement not confirmed, a fourteen-year-old's right foot in July 2008, a 6-to-7-foot bull shark that bit a fifteen-year-old's calf in July 2002, a 1995 drowning with post-mortem tiger shark bites, a surfer's left foot in 1971 and an unconfirmed swimming case in August 2000; that same month a swimmer heading out to porpoises off Bogue Banks had his left hand almost severed. Atlantic Beach has four rows between 2007 and 2018, including a wrist laceration from a 3-foot shark in June 2016 and a surfer's lower leg in August 2018, and a seventeen-year-old standing at Fort Macon State Beach suffered severe injuries to the leg and hand on 2 June 2019. Beaufort Inlet (a lower right leg bitten in August 2011), Cape Lookout (a skiff bumped by a 20-foot shark in 1905 and a diver unhurt by two 4-to-5-foot sharks in 1995) and the two Morehead salvage divers of 1853 whose copper breastplates were bitten by white sharks fill out the county.
• The Outer Banks, Dare and Currituck counties: Avon, Rodanthe, Salvo and CorollaDare County holds 12 rows and the state's most serious modern event. At Avon on Hatteras Island on 3 September 2001, at 18:00, two swimmers were bitten in the same incident, a 28-year-old killed and a 23-year-old losing the left buttock and foot; the database notes that a large white shark had been filmed by divers on a local wreck two days before. Avon adds a wader's foot bitten by an 18-to-24-inch shark in May 2012 and multiple lacerations to a body surfer's back in June 2015. Rodanthe has three rows: a surfer's calf in July 2004, a bull shark that injured an eighteen-year-old's calf, buttock and both hands on 27 June 2015, and a surfer's foot lacerated in January 2020, the coldest-month entry in the file. Salvo has a sandbar shark encounter with a surfer in September 1989 and a body surfer's thigh injured in June 2020, Buxton a surfer's foot in August 2011, and off Cape Hatteras a hooked 5-foot blacktip left an arc of punctures on an angler's leg in July 2019, one of the file's four provoked rows. Currituck County to the north has two rows at Corolla: a twelve-year-old's calf lacerated by a small shark queried as a tiger at Pine Island in July 2000, and the state's last fatal entry, a 60-year-old swimmer at 21:00 on 12 September 2009 whose death is recorded with shark involvement not confirmed.
• Ocracoke and Hyde CountySeven rows carry the Ocracoke name and four of them are fatal: a swimmer at Ocracoke Inlet in 1905, a fisherman at Ocracoke in July 1905, the May 1945 Ocracoke Inlet swimmer and an entry with no activity recorded at Ocracoke in August 1945. The modern rows are survivable but not trivial: a 68-year-old swimming at the National Park Service lifeguard beach on 1 July 2015 suffered injuries to the torso, hip, lower leg and hands from a 6-to-7-foot shark, a six-year-old boogie boarder on Ocracoke Island had the lower right leg and foot bitten in July 2011, and a scuba diver met a sand tiger in June 1988.
• Topsail Island and Onslow Beach, Pender and Onslow countiesPender County's nine rows are all survived and the latest is a surfer at Topsail Beach with lacerations to the lower leg on 19 July 2022. Surf City is the island's cluster, with five rows: a 54-year-old surfer whose board was bitten in August 2020, lacerations to a hand and forearm off the beach on 4 July 2015, a six-year-old's minor foot injury from a sand tiger on 24 June 2015, and two 2008 cases, a nine-year-old's toe nipped by a 3-foot shark in July and an unconfirmed calf bite in August. Topsail Island and Topsail Beach add a foot lacerated in June 2010, a right foot bitten by a 3-to-4-foot shark in July 2008 and a fourteen-year-old's leg lacerated by a 4-to-5-foot shark in August 2002, and a swimmer at Hamstead was bumped by a 6-foot shark in June 1993. Onslow County's six rows include five at North Topsail Beach, two of them bull sharks: a calf severely lacerated in September 2005 and a ten-year-old's ankle bitten by a 6-foot bull in June 2008; the 1935 fatal entry, a swimmer at Brown's Inlet on the New River at 20:30 on 21 September, lies on Onslow Beach.
• The sounds, the rivers and the wreck grounds offshoreBull sharks account for the inland rows: a 6.5-foot bull bit the left calf and foot of a person treading water in the Neuse River in Craven County on 22 July 2020, and a nineteen-year-old on a flotation device in Pamlico Sound suffered severe lacerations to the abdomen and thighs in August 1993. New Bern has a bather's right leg bitten in June 1894 and an angler's arm severely lacerated nearby in July 1916, and the oldest fatal bathing entry is at Elizabeth City in Pasquotank County in September 1881, with possible post-mortem bites. Offshore, the Graveyard of the Atlantic supplies the 1937 loss of the Greek freighter Tzenny Chandris off Cape Hatteras and the 1855 grounding of the William Penn, a scuba diver who disappeared on the wreck of the U-352 in May 1992 with only a ripped dive jacket recovered, a boat that sank after colliding with a basking shark on Frying Pan Shoals in February 1999 and a research boat bitten by a freshly tagged juvenile mako off the Outer Banks in April 2021.

The complete North Carolina record: 123 incidents

The statistics, the decade chart, the six most recent cases and the full table are generated from the SharkSider database, which merges the International Shark Attack File, the Global Shark Attack File and verified local reports and is refreshed every week. The 25 newest incidents are open below; older decades are grouped and expand on a click. Eight entries are older than 1900 and appear at the end, so the decade chart covers the 115 dated entries from the 1900s onward.

• Recorded incidents123 (115 since 1900)
• Fatal13
• Years covered1853–2025
• Since 200079 incidents, 2 fatal
• Most common activitySwimming & wading
• Most identified sharkBull shark

The most recent incidents

• 29 May 2025 · Sunset Beach, North CarolinaSwimming — Gash to lower left legShark not identified · not fatal
• 23 August 2023 · Oak Island, Brunswick County, North CarolinaWading — Minor injury to shoulderShark not identified · not fatal
• 19 July 2022 · Topsail Beach, Pender County, Noirth CarolinaSurfing — Lacerations to lower legShark not identified · not fatal
• 27 July 2021 · Wrightsville Beach, North CarolinaStanding — Lower left leg bittenShark not identified · not fatal
• 27 June 2021 · Ocean Isle, Brunswick County, North CarolinaSwimming — Calf bittenShark not identified · not fatal
• 17 April 2021 · Outer Banks, North CarolinaTagging sharks — No injury to occupants, shark bit boat after being taggedShark: Mako shark, 4 juvenile · not fatal

Every recorded incident

How to read a table this long. First, the fatal rows are not all bites: the 1937 and 1864 entries are ship losses, the 1881 bathing death carries a note about possible post-mortem bites, and the 2009 Corolla and 1989 Wrightsville deaths are recorded with shark involvement unconfirmed. Second, the file includes cases that were never attacks at all, kept for completeness: a boat that sank after colliding with a basking shark in 1999, a research boat bitten by a freshly tagged juvenile mako in April 2021, boats rammed or towed by sharks in 1905, 1936 and 1938, two divers whose copper breastplates were bitten, two drownings in 1995 in which the bites were post-mortem, and a 2008 collision at Carolina Beach that may have been a dolphin. Third, 4 rows are marked provoked, including an angler bitten by a hooked 5-foot blacktip off Cape Hatteras in July 2019, and several more are marked as unconfirmed. Fourth, the same day can hold two entries when two people were bitten in one event, as at Avon on 3 September 2001 and Oak Island on 14 June 2015. Strip all of that out and the core of the record is still large: dozens of confirmed, unprovoked bites on swimmers, waders and surfers, nearly all between June and September.

The sharks behind North Carolina's bites

Bull shark. The most frequently identified species in the state's record and the one responsible for its most serious modern injuries. Bull sharks are named in the June 2015 double amputation at Oak Island, a swimmer at Rodanthe with injuries to the calf, buttock and hands later that month, a 6-to-7-foot animal that bit a swimmer's calf at Emerald Isle in July 2002, a wader at North Topsail Beach whose calf was severely lacerated in September 2005, a 6-foot shark that bit an ankle on the same beach in June 2008, a 6.5-foot shark that bit a person treading water in the Neuse River in July 2020, and a 1993 Pamlico Sound case with severe lacerations to the abdomen and thighs. Bull sharks live in the sounds and rivers, tolerate low salinity, and hunt in the warm, turbid water off inlets and river mouths in the hottest months, which is exactly where and when these cases fall.

Sand tiger and sand sharks. Sand tigers are named in 4 entries and sand sharks, an older name that usually refers to the same animal or to sandbars, in 3 more. They include a 4-to-5-foot sand tiger that bit a swimmer's forearm at Wrightsville Beach in July 2010, a minor foot injury at Surf City in June 2015, a scuba diver who survived an encounter at Ocracoke in June 1988, and a December 1985 New Hanover County entry with no activity recorded. Sand tigers gather on the offshore wrecks in huge numbers and drift inshore in summer; their bites are almost always minor and often provoked.

White shark. Named in 3 entries: the 1957 fatal bite to a swimmer's knee at Salter Path, and the two 1853 Morehead salvage divers whose copper breastplates were bitten or punctured. The 2001 Avon fatal entry also carries a note that a large white shark had been filmed on a local wreck two days before. White sharks pass through North Carolina waters in winter and spring on their migration between New England and Florida, staying mostly offshore.

Tiger shark, blacktip and the rest. Tiger sharks appear in 2 entries, a 1996 surfer and a small 3-to-5-foot animal, queried as a tiger shark, that lacerated a 12-year-old's calf at Corolla in July 2000, with a possible juvenile tiger at Sunset Beach in 2014. Blacktips are named in the hooked-shark case off Cape Hatteras in 2019 and a Bald Head Island bite in 2018, and the many entries listing only a 3-to-5-foot shark are most likely blacktips, spinner sharks or juvenile sandbars, the species that swarm the surf zone in summer. A juvenile mako bit a research boat in 2021. The full species list, including the Carolina hammerhead first described from these waters, is on our sharks in North Carolina page.

Safety rules drawn from the North Carolina record

The record is large enough to show real patterns, and each of them translates into a rule.

• Treat June and July as the high season. Since 2000, 46 of the 79 incidents fell in those two months, and the 2015 cluster of 8 entries began on 11 June at Ocean Isle and ended on 4 July off Surf City. Bait schools, warm water and the first big crowds arrive together.
• Stay out of murky water near inlets and river mouths. Every serious bull shark case in the file happened in warm, turbid water, from the Neuse River to the Brunswick and Topsail beaches. Clear water lets a shark see that a leg is not a fish.
• Avoid late afternoon and evening swims. The two Oak Island amputations of 14 June 2015 are timed at 16:12 and 17:51, the 2001 Avon fatal event at 18:00, the 2009 Corolla death at 21:00 and the 1935 Brown's Inlet death at 20:30. Small sharks feed all day, but the bigger animals move inshore as the light fades.
• Do not swim near people fishing, and never near bait or a hooked fish. The 2019 hooked blacktip is one of 4 provoked entries, and surf fishing with cut bait is common on every North Carolina beach.
• Keep hands and feet out of bait schools. The dozens of foot, ankle and hand bites in the table are exactly what happens when a limb moves inside a school of menhaden.
• Respect the Outer Banks' remoteness. Much of the Hatteras and Ocracoke shoreline has no lifeguards and is far from a hospital. A bite that would be minor at Wrightsville can be life-threatening there. Know how to apply a tourniquet and read our guide on how to survive a shark attack.

North Carolina in the national and global picture

The International Shark Attack File confirms somewhere between 60 and 80 unprovoked bites worldwide in a typical year, and in a busy summer North Carolina alone can contribute five or more of them. Among US states only Florida, with 1,199 records, and South Carolina, with 177, sit ahead of it on the Atlantic coast, and Hawaii and California ahead of it nationally. Its northern neighbour Virginia has 19 entries and Georgia to the south has 18, which shows how sharply the record changes where the Gulf Stream swings close to the beach. What makes North Carolina different from Florida is severity: a larger share of its recent injuries involve bull sharks rather than the small blacktips that produce Florida's dozens of nips a year, so the state has fewer bites but a higher proportion of serious ones. Every state is compared on the shark attacks in the USA page.

Neighbouring records and North Carolina's sharks

The same beaches and species continue south into South Carolina, whose Grand Strand shares Long Bay with the Brunswick beaches, and north into Virginia. Georgia and Florida complete the south-eastern picture. The animals themselves are described on our sharks in North Carolina page, and every country and state we track is listed on the shark attacks hub.

Written and reviewed by

SharkSider Editorial Team

A small team focused on researching sharks and making marine biology easy to understand. Every page is reviewed against current species records and the SharkSider attack database, and updated when new incidents or research appear.

Published September 16, 2023 · Last updated September 22, 2026 · 123 records for North Carolina in the SharkSider attack database (13 fatal), updated weekly.