A Canadian vacationer making an attempt to {photograph} a shark in shallow water at a seaside within the Turks and Caicos Islands this month was bitten by the shark and misplaced each of her palms, officers mentioned.
The 55-year-old vacationer was handled at a hospital earlier than she left the island, Providenciales, a sandy, 38-square-mile magnet for snorkelers and solar seekers that’s ringed by turquoise waters.
The shark was about six ft lengthy, in accordance with the Turks and Caicos authorities, however its species was unclear.
The vacationer had “tried to have interaction with the animal” in an effort to take photos of it earlier than she was bitten on Feb. 7, the Division of Surroundings and Coastal Assets in Turks and Caicos mentioned in a press release.
The girl, who had been snorkeling when she was bitten, was later transported to Canada to obtain extra remedy, mentioned Laura Dowrich, a spokeswoman for Expertise Turks and Caicos, a tourism board for the islands.
The Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Power mentioned it was investigating.
World Affairs Canada, the nation’s international affairs division, mentioned it was conscious of the episode and was contacting the native authorities for extra info and to supply its help.
The vacationer’s identification was not instantly launched.
The seaside was closed however reopened on Feb. 9 after the shark was discovered to have moved into deeper water, in accordance with the Division of Surroundings and Coastal Assets. Turks and Caicos, an archipelago, is a British territory and one of many Caribbean’s fanciest vacationer locations. It’s also residence to one of many largest barrier reefs on the earth.
Shark bites are extraordinarily uncommon and are usually accidents, consultants say. However sharks could cause extreme wounds after they mistake people for prey.
Internationally, there have been 88 confirmed or potential shark bites logged final 12 months by the Worldwide Shark Assault File on the College of Florida, a company that tracks shark information.
Twenty-four had been provoked, that means {that a} human had initiated contact with the shark, in accordance with the group. 4 folks died from shark bites. One in every of final 12 months’s recorded bites was in Turks and Caicos; it was not deadly.
The file’s director, Gavin Naylor, mentioned on Saturday that it was too quickly to say if this month’s chunk in Turks and Caicos was provoked or unprovoked.
However Chris Stefanou, a New York fisherman and conservationist who tags sharks, mentioned that photographing sharks can carry dangers, and that the shark might need confused a cellphone for a fish.
“Sharks, or any predatory animal within the ocean, can confuse that as like a bait fish,” Mr. Stefanou mentioned, referring to small, shiny fish that draw sharks to shore. “The shark didn’t simply see a human: ‘Ooh, I’m hungry, I need to go take a chunk.’ That didn’t occur.”
The episode was not the one reported shark chunk within the Caribbean on Feb. 7. Within the night, two People had been injured in what gave the impression to be a shark encounter in Bimini Bay within the northern Bahamas, in accordance with the Royal Bahamas Police Power.
Mr. Naylor mentioned two bites in someday within the area was uncommon and made him “sit up a little bit.”
However it was not clear whether or not there was any development. The variety of confirmed unprovoked shark bites dropped to 47 final 12 months, down from 69 the 12 months earlier than, in accordance with the Worldwide Shark Assault File.