1.   At the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic, a steady stream of patients arrives for everything from heart trouble to shark bites.

2.   Dodd, who performed necropsies on the turtles, said none were killed by infections, parasites, shark bites or propeller strikes.

3.   Indeed, Burgess said the surfers usually vow to go back in the water even after a shark bite.

4.   Shark bites usually peak in the vacation rush to the coast at Christmas, which is summertime here, and again in the midwinter sardine runs, he said.

5.   The number of shark bites can vary widely year-to-year and location-to-location.

6.   Shark bites typically happen in conditions of breaking surf, undertow, tidal currents and reduced visibility, Burgess said.

7.   Shark bites are common at New Smyrna Beach because the nearby Ponce de Leon Inlet is a site for fish spawning and schooling, Horster said.

8.   The seal was found near the Kona Village Resort with about a dozen shark bites, but none life-threatening, Dupree said.