A man kite surfing off a Florida beach died Wednesday after being enclosed and attacked by sharks.

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The Martin County Sheriff's Office said a lifeguard first saw the man in suffering at 4:15 p.m. about 500 yards from shore close to Stuart, on the Atlantic seashore.

The lifeguard paddled out into tough water and found sharks encircling 38-year-old Stephen Howard Schafer.

The lifeguard put Schafer on his rescue board and paddled back to shore. Paramedics took Schafer to a hospital, where he later died.

Victim bitten various times

Daniel Wouters, of Martin County Fire Rescue, told ABC-affiliate news station WPBF that when he was spotted Schafer was “just hanging onto his board… not normal natural action for a kite surfer.”

“When (paramedics) got there, they found a number of sharks in the water and they found the victim had been bitten several times,” Wouters said, according to a report on the WPBF's Web site.

“They were able to maneuver him onto the kite to basically somewhat protect him and bring him on shore.”

Jim Smith, who saw the rescue, stated WPBF that the savers had done all they could. “I can't emphasise enough — they did their best. The guy just wasn't moving,” he said.

Young great white sharks suspected

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Research scientist Grant Gilmore told The Palm Beach Post it was very unusual for sharks to bite mankind off Florida's eastern coast at this time of year. He added it should be possible to tell which sharks were responsible from the bite marks.

“It would be nice to have closing on this, to know what it was, especially since the man, tragically, died,” he told the newspaper.

Gilmore said of the four species known to attack mankind in the field, great hammerheads, bulls and tigers all choose warm water and leave or go deep in winter. “The only other species that gathers in abundance out there in the winter are the juvenile great white sharks,” Gilmore told The Palm Peach Post.

'Nicest person ever'

Friends spoke of their shock at the attack.

“I've never heard of multiple sharks in this area surrounding somebody and fatally wounding him,” the victim's childhood friend, Teague Taylor, 36, told The Palm Beach Post.

Jordan Schwartz told the paper Schafer was a very knowledgeable kiteboard surfer and “a great pleasant guy, always mellow, I don't think he had any enemies.”

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