The photo is named after Lulu Gribbin, who lost her leg and hand to a shark in 2024. Photo: Lulu Gribbin
Alabama residents can now get a text alert if there is a nearby shark attack. Two years after its eponymous shark encounter, the state’s LuLu Gribbin Shark Alert System officially went live on Monday.
The new system is modeled after the emergency notification style used for AMBER Alerts. Texts will go out when The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources receives a confirmed report of an unprovoked shark attack or a credible report of shark activity that poses an imminent danger to beachgoers. Alerts only go out to citizens within a tightly geofenced area located in Baldwin and Mobile counties.
The scope of the system is scaled back from initial proposals. At first, the texts were planned on going out whenever there was any shark sighting, but that was toned down for fear of excessive alerts. “This is better than what was originally (considered) of when someone happened to think they see (a shark) or thought they’d saw one, it would go off,” said Dauphin Island Mayor Jeff Collier. “They thought it would be crying wolf too often. But if an actual shark attack occurs, it would be smart to notify people in that general area if not fully along the coast.”
The system is named after Lulu Gribbin, a 15-year-old Mountain Brook, Alabama resident who was attacked by a bull shark while visiting Florida’s Seacrest Beach on the Gulf Coast in 2024. Following the incident, in which she lost her left hand and right leg, Alabama senator Katie Britt introduced Lulu’s Law, which codified shark attacks as events for which wireless emergency alerts may be transmitted.
Though the details of Gribbin’s encounter are evocative, shark attacks in Alabama are actually quite rare. The Florida Museum’s international shark attack file shows the state having experienced eight unprovoked shark attacks in the past 179 years.
Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources commissioner Chris Blankenship told al.com, that despite the fact that the shark alert system has received national attention, no other state officials have contacted him about creating a similar system.
“I don’t anticipate us ever having to use this,” he added.
