A sign warning of great white sharks is posted at the path to Nauset Beach in Massachusetts.

An 8-year-old boy was hospitalized after being bitten by a shark while snorkeling off Key Largo, Florida, on Labor Day, according to authorities.

The boy was bitten at about 3:24 p.m. and airlifted to a hospital in Miami, the Monroe County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.

A "good Samaritan" on the water nearby heard calls for help over a radio and approached the boat the family to help, according to an incident report obtained by USA TODAY. The bystander, Richard Hayden, told authorities that the boy's father had applied a tourniquet to the boy's right leg and he helped apply another tourniquet to stop the bleeding, the report said. Hayden guided the father back to land, where they were met by first responders.

The boy's condition was not known. A spokesperson for Jackson Memorial Hospital said his family asked for privacy and the hospital could not comment on his condition.

There have been several other shark bites documented this year at Florida beaches, but an expert previously told USA TODAY the trend of shark attacks declined in 2024 and was on pace in 2025.

Two beachgoers were bitten at the same beach in July, at New Smyrna Beach in Volusia County, which is known as the "shark bite capital of the world." An 18-year-old man was bitten on the foot while surfing, and a 40-year-old man was bitten on the forearm while swimming at the beach.

Other shark bites in the waters off Florida this year include a fisherman who was bitten while posing for a photo with a shark he caught with friends on the barrier island of Cayo Costa and a Canadian tourist who suffered lacerations to his arm while in the water off Hollywood, Florida.

Gavin Naylor, a geneticist and professor who studies sharks at the University of Florida, previously told USA TODAY that shark bites actually plummeted in 2024 and were "about average" so far in 2025. Bites were below average this year in Volusia County. According to records kept by the International Shark Attack File at UF’s Museum of Natural History, there have been 21 "unprovoked" shark bites in Monroe County, where the boy was injured on Sept. 1, since 1882.

In Volusia County, 94 people were bitten between 2012 and 2021, the records show. All were nonfatal. Naylor said the shark bite capital county's shoreline averages 12 to 15 bites or nibbles a year and had seen only four as of late July.

(This story has been updated to add new information.)

Contributing: Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 8-year-old bitten by shark while snorkeling in Florida

Reporting by Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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