Trump signs Lulu’s Law to alert phone after bites

After Alabama teen Lulu Gribbin survived a shark attack off Florida’s Panhandle in 2024, President Donald Trump signed “Lulu’s Law” to let emergency alerts reach mobile phones when a shark bites someone nearby. The measure, backed by Gribbin and Alabama Sen. K

When Lulu Gribbin waded back into the water, she didn’t know another shark bite had happened just 90 minutes earlier and only 3 miles down the beach. In hindsight, she said, she would never have gone swimming.

Gribbin was 15 when the attack changed her life forever. On June 7, 2024, off the Florida Panhandle, she was on a mother-daughter trip. She and her friend had been diving for sand dollars when her best friend yelled “Shark!” Gribbin said she remembered that sharks are drawn to frantic splashing. and she yelled for everyone to stay calm.

But the shark came for her.

Gribbin was bitten—one of three people bitten that day. She said the shark bit off her left hand first. Then it latched onto her right leg. A man punched the shark off her, and strangers on the beach rushed to help. Gribbin was flown by helicopter to a nearby hospital.

Doctors saved her life, but had to amputate part of her right leg.

In the months after, the fight didn’t end with surgery. Gribbin described a period of trying to make sense of what had happened and choosing to keep moving anyway. She said she struggled when she realized she only had two regular limbs and that her life would be “completely different.”

She said she cried and asked her mom, “Why is it happening to me?” Then she said her family put a Bible verse on her bedside table: “With God, all things are possible.” She added that her mother told her what you look like doesn’t define you—“it’s who you are on the inside.”

She carried that message through her recovery. Gribbin said she was fitted with prosthetic limbs. regained the ability to walk quickly. returned to sports. and got her driver’s license. She later went back in the water and learned to surf. and she met Bethany Hamilton. the professional surfer who lost her arm in a shark attack.

Now, the law that bears Gribbin’s name is aimed at preventing other families from making the same decision in ignorance.

President Donald Trump last week signed “Lulu’s Law,” a federal measure designed to authorize emergency alerts to mobile phones when a shark has bitten someone in the area. The legislation requires the Federal Communications Commission to allow the emergency messages.

The law—Gribbin advocated for it—works by classifying a shark attack as an event for which an emergency alert can be issued. States will still decide how to implement the warnings. Gribbin’s home state of Alabama approved such a warning system last year.

Gribbin called it common-sense. She said it works “exactly like how an Amber Alert system works when a child is abducted,” sending an alert to a phone whenever there is a shark attack in a certain area where someone is nearby.

She said she hopes the alerts will help prevent attacks like hers. “I definitely see this law working in the future and I’m really excited to hopefully save lives,” she said.

The stakes are clear, even though the danger is statistically rare.

Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Museum of Natural History’s shark research program, said shark bites remain uncommon. He said there are between 60 and 80 known unprovoked bites worldwide each year. and it’s “extremely rare” for two or more people to be bitten in close proximity. In the International Shark Attack File—his database of known shark bites—he said there have only been a few instances of multiple bites in a single day.

When multiple bites happen, Naylor said it’s likely tied to environmental conditions such as sharks following schools of bait fish closer to shore. He also pointed to murky water, saying it can increase the chance that a shark mistakes a person for a fish or seal.

In the area where Gribbin was bitten, Naylor said there are about 20 to 30 bull sharks 1,312 feet (400 meters) offshore at all time. Great white sharks, he said, have been spotted more frequently in the chilly waters of New England and Atlantic Canada, according to conservation groups.

For people who want to watch from the beach. he noted that a smartphone app called Sharktivity lets shark spotters report sightings. Even if those reports make people uneasy, Naylor said the overall pattern still matters: shark attacks are rare. He said. “If sharks wanted to eat people. we’d have about 10. 000 bites a day.” The fact that the number is so low. he said. suggests sharks are avoiding people rather than targeting them.

Gribbin’s view on the alert system reflects that same balance—information first, choice second. She said she would rather people have the opportunity to get information and make decisions about protecting themselves than go into the water without knowing.

Another survivor who has lived through a shark attack also backed the idea.

Braxton Rocha was bitten by a large tiger shark off the north shore of the Big Island of Hawaii. He said he liked the alert system and believes it is information people—especially tourists—will want to know.

Rocha said he was spearfishing in 2015 when he saw the shark. He described it as something that “looked like a bus or submarine.” He started moving toward shore. When he looked back to check where the shark was, he said it was right in front of him. Rocha tried to push it away, but he said it was too big and powerful. It latched onto his leg. He punched it in the nose and the shark let go and swam away.

He said everything happened fast, “almost like being struck by lightning.” He remembered looking down and seeing “giant clouds of blood just bursting out of my leg.” He said it took nearly 100 staples to repair the gaping wound on his leg.

Still, Rocha said the experience did not cool his affection for the ocean. “I’ve always loved sharks,” he said.

For Gribbin. the law signed by Trump last week turns her worst day into a system meant to reach other beachgoers before the water becomes a risk. The details will now be carried out by states—starting with what Alabama has already approved—and the hope is simple: fewer people will walk into the tide without knowing what just happened nearby.

Lulu’s Law shark attack alert system emergency alerts FCC Alabama Katie Britt Lulu Gribbin Florida Panhandle mobile phone alerts International Shark Attack File Gavin Naylor