At just 15 years old, Lulu Gribbin faced an unimaginable ordeal—a shark attack off Florida’s coast that resulted in the loss of her left hand, part of her right leg, and almost claimed her life.
Unbeknownst to her, only an hour and a half before her harrowing encounter, another swimmer had also fallen victim to a shark bite three miles away. Gribbin later reflected that had she known about the prior attack, she would never have ventured into the water that day in 2024.
Inspired by her survival and the potential to prevent similar incidents, Gribbin has been a driving force behind new federal legislation aimed at enhancing safety measures for beachgoers. The legislation authorizes emergency alerts to be sent to mobile devices to warn swimmers when a shark attack occurs in the vicinity.
Last week, President Donald Trump signed this groundbreaking initiative, aptly named “Lulu’s Law.” The law mandates that the Federal Communications Commission enable these emergency messages, classifying shark attacks as events warranting alerts. While the federal legislation provides the framework, it falls on individual states to implement the warning systems. Alabama, Gribbin’s home state, led the charge by approving such a system last year.
Gribbin articulated the law’s practical approach, noting, “It’s really just common-sense legislation. Whenever there has been a shark attack in a nearby area, an alert will be sent to your phone, much like the Amber Alert system does for child abductions.”
Gribbin said she hopes the alert system will help prevent attacks like hers. “I definitely see this law working in the future and I’m really excited to hopefully save lives,” she said.
A fight to survive
Gribbin was one of three people bitten by a shark on June 7, 2024, off the Florida Panhandle.
She was on a mother-daughter trip to the Florida Panhandle. Gribbin said she and her friend had been diving for sand dollars.
“All of the sudden my best friend yelled, ‘Shark!’ and so we all started swimming for our lives,” Gribbin recalled. She said she remembered that sharks are attracted to frantic splashing and yelled for everyone to be calm. Gribbin, who was closest to the shark, was bitten.
“The shark bit off my hand first, and I raised my arm out of the water, and there was just flesh and bone there,” Gribbin said. The shark then latched onto her leg. A man punched the shark off her and strangers on the beach rushed to help. She was flown by helicopter to a nearby hospital.
Doctors were able to save the teen’s life but had to amputate part of her right leg.
Choosing positivity throughout her recovery
In the hospital, Gribbin made a deliberate decision to choose joy and to never give up.
She initially struggled knowing, “that I only have two regular limbs, and that my life would be completely different.”
“I would cry, and I would ask my mom, ‘Why is it happening to me?’ And on that day, we put a Bible verse on my bedside table that said, ‘With God, all things are possible.’ And then she told me that what you look like doesn’t define you, it’s who you are on the inside. And so, I think that stuck with me throughout my whole recovery the past two years.
It doesn’t matter what I look like, as long as I’m spreading positivity and inspiring others to stay strong and to never give up,” she said.
Gribbin was fitted with prosthetic limbs, quickly regained her ability to walk, returned to sports and got her driver’s license. She has gone back in the water and learned to surf, meeting Bethany Hamilton, a professional surfer who lost her arm in a shark attack.
U.S. Sen. Katie Britt, the Alabama Republican who sponsored the legislation, said the fact that Gribbin was bitten soon after an attack on another woman prompted discussions about what could have been done differently. That led to the idea of an alert. She contacted Gribbin’s parents who had thought about the same possibility.
“If there had been any type of alert that was given, that there’s no way that Lulu would have been in the water. And so we talked about how a simple change could have made a huge impact,” Britt said.
Shark bites remain rare
While sharks are commonly found in the waters off the United States, shark bites are rare, said Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Museum of Natural History’s shark research program.
There are between 60 to 80 known unprovoked bites worldwide each year, he said. It’s extremely rare that two or more people are bitten in close proximity. He said in a database of known shark bites, called the International Shark Attack File, there have only been a few instances of multiple bites in a single day.
“If somebody is bitten by a shark, and then an alert goes out, the probability that another person’s going to be bitten by a shark within, let’s say, two or three hours is incredibly small,” Naylor said.
When that happens, he said it’s likely because of environmental conditions such as sharks following schools of bait fish closer to the shore. Murky water conditions can also be a factor because they increase the chance that a shark will mistake a person for a fish or seal.
In the area where Gribbin was bitten, there are about 20 to 30 bull sharks 1,312 feet (400 meters) offshore at any time, Naylor said. Great white sharks have been spotted more frequently in the chilly waters of New England and Atlantic Canada, according to conservation groups. A smartphone app called Sharktivity also allows shark spotters to report their sightings.
The sightings might unnerve people, but Naylor said it’s important to remember that shark attacks are rare.
“If sharks wanted to eat people, we’d have about 10,000 bites a day. The fact that we have so few is basically testament to the fact that the sharks are doing their level best to avoid people, not to target them,” Naylor said.
Britt said she believes parents and others on the beach will want the information. “I know as a parent, I want every tool in my toolbox to be able to keep my child safe,” Britt said.
Another survivor praises the alert system
Braxton Rocha, who was bitten by a large tiger shark off the north shore of the Big Island of Hawaii, said he liked the idea of an alert system. He thinks it is information that people, particularly tourists to the island, will want to know.
Rocha was spearfishing in 2015 when he saw the large shark. “Looked like a bus or submarine. She was the biggest thing I’d seen in the ocean at that time,” Rocha said. He started making his way to shore. When he looked back to check where the shark was, the animal was right in front of him. He tried to push the shark away, but the animal was too big and powerful. It latched onto his leg. Rocha punched it in the nose and the shark let go and swam away.
“Everything happened so fast. It was almost like being struck by lightning. I was still kind of out of it. I looked down and see giant clouds of blood just bursting out of my leg,” he said.
It took nearly 100 staples to repair the gaping wound on his leg. But the experience did not dampen Rocha’s enthusiasm for the ocean and wildlife. “I’ve always loved sharks,” Rocha said.
___
This story corrects the spellings of Gribbin’s name that appear in the comments by Sen. Britt.