A shark attacked and killed a US cruise ship passenger who was snorkeling in waters around the Bahamas on Tuesday, authorities said.
A 58-year-old Pennsylvania wife and mother was involved in the incident. Her identity has not been made public.
She was with her husband, daughter and son when the attack took place, reports Eyewitness News in the Bahamas.
It happened at a popular snorkeling spot near Green Cay in the northern Bahamas, police spokeswoman Chief Superintendent Chrislyn Skippings told The Associated Press.
“It’s unfortunate,” she said. The beach where the woman was killed has been closed indefinitely by officials.
Skippings said the woman’s family identified it as a bull shark. Local media broadcast footage showing the woman’s family grieving as she was brought back to the coast.
According to Eyewitness News, the woman was traveling with a group of five to seven other passengers when she was attacked just before 2 p.m.
Skippings told the network that the woman sustained injuries to her “upper extremities.”
Local news media captured the dramatic moments as rescue workers attempted to save the woman’s life
Officials said the woman sustained injuries to her “upper extremities.”
The Bahamas is home to a wide variety of shark species, most of which are oblivious to humans except for bull sharks and tiger sharks
The organizers of the tour were able to drag the woman back onto the boat, from where she was hurried back briefly.
Unfortunately, before she arrived, she was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Royal Caribbean International said in a statement to the AP that the person died after arriving at a local hospital for treatment and that the company is helping their loved ones.
They said the guest attended an independent shore excursion in Nassau and sailed on the Harmony of the Seas, which is on a seven-night voyage after departing Port Canaveral, Fla. on Sunday.
Finley Downer, 8, was on a trip to the sheltered port of Compass Cay in the Bahamas with his family in August when the horrific attack occurred
Downer’s father said his children later on in the trip saw a shark shower swimming alongside a crowd of holidaymakers in a nearby lagoon and walked across – unaware they were feeding on trash thrown at them
It’s the second shark attack in a month.
In August, a British schoolboy was attacked by three sharks while on a family holiday in the Caribbean after tourists “started throwing their lunch in the water”.
Finley Downer, 8, was on a trip to the sheltered port of Compass Cay in the Bahamas with his family last week when the horrific attack occurred.
Downer’s father recounted how his son had “huge chunks of meat hanging from both his legs” in scenes he described as like the movie Jaws.
He believes Finley only survived the horror attack because a nurse was among the tourists helping to stanch the blood and he was able to pay for a private plane to take the stricken boy to the hospital for life-saving surgery .
Most shark attacks in the Caribbean occurred in the Bahamas, with two reported in 2019, one fatal.
Jordan Lindsay was killed in a horrific attack in 2019 when her right arm was ripped off and she suffered bites to her left arm, both legs and buttocks. Police believe three sharks were involved
That incident involved a Southern California college student named Jordan Lindsay, 21, who was on vacation and was attacked by three sharks near Rose Island, just half a mile from where Tuesday’s attack occurred.
Similar to Tuesday’s incident, Lindsay was also snorkeling with family members when she was killed.
In December 2020, a fatal shark attack was reported in the French Caribbean region of St. Martin, the first such incident in that region.
Overall, at least 32 shark attacks have been reported in the Bahamas since 1749, followed by 13 attacks in Cuba during that period, including one in 2019, according to the Florida-based International Shark Attack File.
Overall, at least 32 shark attacks have been reported in the Bahamas since 1749
The site where the woman was attacked and killed on September 6 has been closed indefinitely for swimming, officials said
Michael Heithaus, a marine biologist at Florida International University in Miami, said in a phone interview that the high number of attacks in the Bahamas is likely related to the fact that there are many people in the water and it also has a robust marine ecosystem.
He said there are a variety of shark species in the Bahamas that most people pay no attention to, except for bull sharks and tiger sharks.
“They get very big and eat big prey,” Heithaus said, adding that sharks have incredible sensory systems and can be drawn to food, sounds and smells in the water.
But overall, shark attacks are rare, he stressed.
According to the International Shark Attack File, there were 137 shark attacks worldwide last year, 73 of them without provocation.
