Lulu Gribbin was diving for sand dollars off Florida’s Gulf Coast with her friends when she felt something grab her leg.
It was a bull shark – known for its stout body, aggressive tendencies and preference for shallow, coastal waters.
Gribbin, then 15 years old, lost her left hand and part of her right leg.
Just 90 minutes earlier, a shark bit another woman 3 miles away. Had she known about the attack earlier in the day, Gribbin, who is now 17, told Straight Arrow, she would have never been in the water. But there was no way for her to know — a shark attack alert was never sent.
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Now, Gribbin is using what happened to her in 2024 to advocate for change, beginning with a better system for shark attack alerts.
President Donald Trump signed “Lulu’s Law” into effect in June. The law requires the Federal Communications Commission to make it possible to issue alerts for shark attacks. While nothing prohibited jurisdictions from previously sending an alert, there was no dedicated code, like for an Amber Alert. Now, states will have to decide if they want to adopt shark attack alerts. Gribbin’s home state of Alabama already approved a warning system last year to alert beachgoers along the state’s coast when a bite occurs.
“It’s common-sense legislation,” Gribbin said. “Not only does this help the beaches and the people on the beach, but it also helps the lifeguards and it allows them to get hands-on quicker and know what they’re getting themselves into, and it’s a much faster system.”
Do emergency alerts actually prevent shark attacks?
While the legislation is aimed at helping other people avoid Gribbin’s fate, experts are unsure whether this law will help accomplish that. Some suggest that educating people about shark behavior and beach safety may be more effective.
There are some leading theories about why sharks bite people unprovoked: They may be in defensive or feeding modes. But there is no definitive known cause, said Christopher G. Lowe, director of the Shark Lab at California State University Long Beach.
Though horrific, Lowe said, shark attacks remain rare.
At least 105 shark-human interactions were logged around the world last year, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File, which tracks and investigates incidents. Of those, 65 were unprovoked, including 25 in the United States. One was fatal.
“The frequency is so incredibly low compared to all our other risks in our daily lives that, in many ways, it’s weird that we worry this much about them,” Lowe told Straight Arrow.
Beachgoers can help lower their risks with a few steps, like swimming in groups and avoiding the water at dawn and dusk, he said.
“People forget that the ocean isn’t Disneyland,” he said. “It’s not a ride where your safety is guaranteed. It’s a wild place, and every time you go in it, it’s kind of up to you to know the risks and what to do to mitigate those risks.”
Why do emergency experts worry about alert fatigue?
Lowe said he “struggles” to see the benefits of the legislation. He worries about the potential economic impact it could have on areas. If people leave the beach in droves because of a shark attack alert, it could leave hotels and vacation rentals empty and drive away business at restaurants and local shops. He is also concerned it will scare people more than inform or educate them.
Just because no alert has been issued does not mean there are no sharks nearby, he said. Conversely, just because an alert was issued doesn’t mean it is necessarily unsafe to be in the water.
“It’s not going to help people want to feel more comfortable about going in the water,” he said. “I think that’s the wrong way to approach this. We need to approach this to educate and inform people so that they can make better risk assessments for themselves as to when they want to get in the water.”
Some experts told Straight Arrow that sending shark attack alerts could also contribute to “alert fatigue.” The worry, experts said, is that people then turn off the alerts that could help save lives.
For example, during last year’s deadly floods in Texas Hill Country, officials waited 90 minutes before sending an emergency alert about flash flooding. By the time the alert was sent, hundreds of people had already been swept away.
In testimony before Congress last December, Jeannette Sutton, associate professor in the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity at the University at Albany, said she failed to understand the benefit of the legislation.
“This is probably one of the dumbest (Wireless Emergency Alert) laws I’ve seen recently,” she wrote in an email to Straight Arrow. “This is entirely political grandstanding.”
How will states decide to use the new alert code?
Hamilton Bean, a professor at the University of Colorado Denver who studies emergency alerts, said the shark alert legislation could be “potentially beneficial, but potentially unnecessary.”
There was never anything stopping jurisdictions from sending a shark attack alert prior to this law. However, without a specific, statutory code outlining what an alert is for, officials can be wary of sending alerts, out of fear of misusing the system. This new code could give officials that boost of confidence.
The legislation leaves it up to each individual state to determine how — and if — they want to implement Lulu’s law, which is considered best practice, Bean said.
In that way, Lulu’s Law is similar to a Blue Alert, which is used when a law enforcement officer has been killed, seriously injured, assaulted or is missing in the line of duty and the suspect is at large. Presently, 37 states use that alert. In contrast, Amber Alerts, which are sent when a child is abducted and believed to be in immediate danger, are used nationwide.
It’s not difficult for a shark attack alert to be added to the list, Bean said, but what can be more complicated is hashing out the logistics of how and when to send an alert.
“You would not want to codify operational decision making in a law like this that’s just adding an alert code to a system,” he said. “Because how could you possibly predict the complexities in such a thing?”
To Gribbin, it’s really all about helping make the beaches safer — and preventing attacks like hers.
“This lets people know what they are swimming in and what surrounds them in the water,” she said.
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