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Shark bite at Cayo Costa, rescue arrives on Gasparilla Island  

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August 20, 2025
By Staff Report

Boca Grande Fire Department and Lee County EMS responded to a shark bite last Saturday night.

Chief C.W. Blosser said that fire and EMS responded on Saturday night to a 10:55 p.m. 911 call to “rendezvous with an incoming boat” that arrived on Gasparilla Island from Cayo Costa. Blosser said that the group was tarpon fishing in the Pass. 

“They had applied a tourniquet to him,” said Blosser. “When we got the call at 10:55; they were about 20 minutes out.” 

Shawn Meuse, who was reportedly out for a birthday fishing trip, was above the lemon shark on Don Pedro when the fish turned around and bit him in the right leg sometime after 10:30 p.m. The 911 call, reported in local media, had the group using a towel on the bite, trying to stop the bleeding. 

“He straddled the shark and he got too close,” said Blosser. “It’s a big shark too.”

Meuse was immediately flown to Gulf Coast Medical Center Trauma in Fort Myers. By Tuesday, Meuse was videoed by WINK news with a plastic toy shark on his bitten leg. “Luckily, he took only a little of me, not a lot,” he told WINK. He told the News-Press that he would have two surgeries to fix the bite. He was not available for comment after the incident, but did post an update to his Tiktok.

@shawnmeuse437 Fishing trip turned into Shark Week “reel” quick. #shark #fishing #boat #sharkbite #accident ♬ Originalton – vspseta

This bite from a six-foot long lemon shark was the island’s second shark incident this year. There was a shark bite on June 11 off of Shore Lane. In that situation, a girl was swimming in the water. She was flown to Tampa and was expected to make a full recovery. 

Shark bite cases are rare in Boca Grande, either provoked or unprovoked.

Cases include a blacktip shark bite off of the Causeway in 1991. In 2005, an Austrian visitor was bitten on the ankle. Other cases included a bite on May 1, 2019, when a victim fishing in Boca Grande Pass fell into the water. 

“They seem to be few and far between in our neck of the woods,” said Blosser.