Girl, 6, in good condition after shark bite off Ocracoke Island

Hands on hips, Pedro Resende stood over 6-year-old Sofia, who seemed barely aware of her dad as she splashed in the foamy water.

Around them, another carefree summer scene unfolded. Children on bodyboards cheered the thrill of riding a wave. A family built sandcastles, and three boys practiced back flips.

From her beach chair, Isabel Resende blended in Wednesday on Ocracoke Island's only lifeguarded beach, but her eyes stayed glued to the shallow water where Sofia played. She and her husband were aware that rip currents and jellyfish stings are real dangers, she said.

But shark attacks?

The Bethlehem, Pa., couple said they added that threat to the list after learning that a little girl had been seriously injured at an Ocracoke beach the day before.

"It was kind of surprising to hear that," Isabel Resende said. "You don't expect it."

Witnesses told National Park Service rangers they saw a black-finned shark about 4 or 5 feet long attacking the girl around 5 p.m. Tuesday where she had been playing in about 18 inches of water near the southern tip of the island. The 6-year-old, whose name has not been released, suffered injuries to her lower right leg and foot. Her condition was upgraded from critical to good Wednesday night.

Park spokeswoman Cyndy Holda said the girl remains in good condition this morning.

A statement from the parents issued by Pitt County Memorial Hospital in Greenville said the girl's mother was 10 feet away and witnessed the attack, The Associated Press reported. The statement said the girl is in good spirits and commented: "I hate sharks. I like dolphins way better."

The incident is the first confirmed shark attack on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore since 2001, when Sergei Zaloukaev, 28, bled to death after one of the fishes severed his leg below the knee in Avon. His girlfriend, Natalia Slobodskaya, 23, was hospitalized with leg injuries after the same attack.

David Peltier, 10, died after a separate attack a few days earlier in Virginia Beach, when a shark tore a 17-inch gash in his leg.

Those are the kind of tragedies revisited year after year on the Discovery Channel's Shark Week programming, and it never fails to terrify Lucy Wright. But, on Wednesday, she was relaxed and making sand sculptures with 6-year-old daughter, Sarah, and husband Laurens Wright. The Newport News family only had a few days to spend on Ocracoke Island.

"We're the kind of parents that want to know, but we don't want to not come down here," she said. "It didn't change our plans."

Ryan Elliott of Charlottesville said he wasn't going to let the shark attack interrupt his vacation, either.

"It's on my mind, but it's kind of just one of those things that you just don't worry about," the 19-year-old said. "Why would you live your life in fear?"

Dwight Burrus owns Burrus Flying Service, which flies tours around the Outer Banks. Hatteras and Ocracoke inlets are good places to fly for shark viewings, he said, because they often congregate there. Burrus said he has not seen more sharks than usual, but more people have started swimming around the inlets and the cape in recent years.

"Four times a day, water comes out of the inlet and in the inlet, bringing fish in and out. The sharks have a legal right to be there," he said. "It would be nice if, somehow, we could educate people not to pull their children on a float across these inlets or windsurf across these inlets, just fish in them."

The chance of being attacked by a shark is small, but beachgoers would be wise to remember that sharks are especially active at dusk and dawn when they feed, and to avoid the water at that time, said head lifeguard Bryan McElwain, whose three-person staff mans Ocracoke Island's one lifeguard chair.

"We're going out in their environment," McElwain said. "He is a shark... just out there doing his thing."

Pilot writers Ruth Moon and Lauren King contributed to this report.

Erin James, (252) 441-1711, erin.james@pilotonline.com