A Florida beachgoer faced this nightmare while playing football in the ocean

A vacation to Florida is supposed to be the highlight of the summer.

But for one tourist the unthinkable happened when frolicking in the water. 

And a Florida beachgoer faced this nightmare while playing football in the ocean. 

A tourist was attacked by a shark at a popular Florida beach

The long Fourth of July weekend brought flocks of tourists to Florida ready to hit the beaches. 

But a 21-year-old man from Ohio suffered the worst-case scenario playing football in knee-deep water.

The tourist was bitten on the foot by a shark at New Smyrna Beach on the Atlantic coast and was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

New Smyrna Beach, 15 miles south of Daytona Beach, was crowned the “shark bite capital of the world.”

Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File reported that Florida led the country in shark bites last year with 16.

And Volusia County, where New Smyrna Beach is located, had eight shark bites, the most of any area in Florida.

A Florida man was bitten by a shark less than a day later while floating in an inner tube in the same area of New Smyrna Beach.

The bite was considered non-life-threatening. 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration official John Carlson said that sharks attacking humans are “extremely rare.”

“You have a better chance of getting in a car accident and being injured on your way to the beach than you do actually when you get to go swimming,” Carlson said.

Former Shark Trust and Shark Conservation Society chair Richard Pierce told CNN the key when encountering a shark is to not panic.

“Don’t start splashing around — you’re just going to excite, incite, and encourage the shark’s interest,” Pierce said.

Swimmers should not play dead if the shark attacks.

“You must try and keep the animal in sight and very slowly and gently try and swim backwards and get into shallow water,” Peirce told CNN. “Again, you’ve got to be careful – large sharks can attack in very shallow depths.”

Shark attacks four different people in Texas on the Fourth of July

A lone shark is believed to be responsible for attacking four people at South Padre Island, Texas.

Two victims suffered minor injuries while a third required stitches after fighting off the shark.

A woman suffered a severe injury to her leg from a shark bite.

Rayner Cardenas helped rescue his son-in-law after he was attacked by the shark.

“I turned around, and he wasn’t there anymore,” Cardenas told KRGV 5. “I started swimming towards him, and he jumped out of the water saying, ‘shark, shark, shark,’ and that’s when adrenaline kicked in. I started swimming after him.”

South Padre Island Fire Chief Jim Pigg said that four attacks were unprecedented.

“I’ve lived here 14 years, I’ve never seen anything like this,” Pigg said.

“The shark was located at the south end of the island and was pushed out to deeper water,” Pigg added. “This is a very rare occurrence that happened on the beaches of South Padre. No further sightings or encounters in the last few hours, but we’ll maintain vigilance.”

The Fourth of July turned into a nightmare for unlucky beachgoers who crossed paths with one of the deadliest predators in nature.

DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.