— A 17-year-old girl was bitten Sunday afternoon by what is believed to be a shark, according to a park ranger.

Atlantic Beach firefighters and paramedics responded to Fort Macon State Park at about 12:20 p.m. in response to the attack.

Paige Winter, 17, suffered severe injuries to her leg and hands and was airlifted to Vidant Medical Center in Greenville.

A post by Winter's mother to a GoFundMe page on Monday read, "Paige is out of surgery and awake, she’s still pretty groggy but cracking jokes. She wants everyone to know that sharks are still good people."

City of Havelock Fire-Rescue Department, Paige's left leg was amputated above the knee. She also suffered serious injuries to her hands.

Paul Terry, a park ranger, said the water was murky at the time. Due to the attack, no one was allowed in the water at Fort Macon on Sunday.

A woman who was on the beach described the moment Winter crawled out of the water. "All of a sudden, everyone started screaming, and I looked to my left, and they were rushing towards this little girl. She looked little, but she's actually 17," said Lacy Whorton. "It looked like she was belly crawling on the beach, and officials were running towards her, and whistles were blowing, and everyone was screaming, and they quickly got everybody out of the water."

Officials said they could not confirm exactly what type of marine life was involved until further information is received from specialists and marine biologists.

Joel Fodrie, who has spent years researching sharks at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Institute of Marine Science , said that, if this is a shark bite, it wasn't likely looking for a human feast.

"You think about all the people and all the time people spend in the water, so to me, that's a clear sign that sharks are almost always perceiving humans as something to not move toward," he said.

Fodrie's research shows shark numbers are on the rise, but that's a good thing after years of overfishing the species.

He says sharks play an important role in marine habitat.

"Certainly, from a human safety perspective, I don't think we are seeing a big shift where people are worried about sharks, but we are seeing more a return to a more balanced ecosystem, which will be playing out over the next few decades," he said.

Fodrie says there's a reason reports of unusual creature sightings at the coast are on the rise. "There are more people, camera phones and all, so we are seeing more things just because we have more people observing," he said.

Fodrie said he respects Winter for her wisdom and hopes people will view this tragic circumstance in context.

"The fact that this is the first bite we've seen this year, most years we only have one or two bites, certainly suggest sharks are not queuing in on people as food," he said. "This is an animal that is largely doing three things: It's trying to find food, it's trying to find a mate, and most of the time, it's trying to avoid danger."

A 14-year-old surfer was bitten at Atlantic Beach last year.