WARNING: This article contains graphic photos
Several unprovoked shark attacks on beachgoers and fishermen in recent weeks have left beachgoers uneasy ahead of the summer and Memorial Day weekend.
Last week, an American tourist was critically injured after a shark injured his leg while vacationing in the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean.
An unidentified 22-year-old Connecticut woman was snorkeling with friends off the island of Providenciales when the shark attacked her, police said.
How to prevent shark attacks this Memorial Day weekend: Avoid spearphishing, says Dr. Gavin Naylor
great white shark (Atlantic Great White Shark Conservation Group, via AP)
Days before the Turks and Caicos incident, a 15-year-old Pennsylvania girl suffered injuries consistent with a shark attack while surfing off Stone Harbor in southern New Jersey, according to Fox29.
After being rescued from the water, the girl suffered a severe laceration to her leg that required six stitches, but the injuries were not life-threatening.
Officials said a teenage boy suffered similar injuries to a shark attack while surfing in Stone Harbor, New Jersey earlier this month. (Fox 29 Philadelphia)
“After careful examination, the wounds sustained by the surfer are consistent with those typically associated with sharks of unknown size and type,” a Stone Harbor official said in a statement. confirmed,” he said.
A shark swims under a kayak boat: see the shocking moments caught on camera
Earlier this month, two fishermen in the Florida Keys shark bite It happened in another incident within 36 hours.
Kevin Blanco, 20, from Miami-Dade County, was bitten on the leg on May 18 while he and two others were spearfishing off the coast of Marathon, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said. After he was carried to shore by a private boat, he was picked up by a doctor helicopter.
Kevin Blanco, 20, estimated the bull shark was about 10 feet long and weighed 500 pounds. (WSVN)
Blanco spoke to WSVN-TV from a hospital bed at Jackson South Medical Center. in miami A bull shark chasing him “appeared out of nowhere” and chomped on his leg twice.
A shark swims under a kayak boat: see the shocking moments caught on camera
“I have been in similar situations many times and they are usually afraid of us,” Blanco told the magazine. “He wasn’t afraid of us. He wanted me. It was a terrible thing.”
Blanco said the shark bit his leg twice before swimming away. (WSVN)
Blanco was a 35-year-old fisherman hours before he encountered the shark. summerland key The sheriff’s office said he was bitten in the leg when he caught a shark while fishing on the dock.
Scott Haraguchi filmed a tiger shark biting his kayak in Hawaii on May 12, but told KITV in Honolulu that he forgot to turn off the power after recording himself catching a fish. He said he was able to capture the moment with his GoPro.
“Unbelievably unlucky, but incredibly lucky to catch it,” he told the outlet.
Florida spear fisherman survives bull shark attack: ‘He wanted me’
Despite recent attacks, gratuitous shark bites are rare, and fatal ones are especially rare.
According to data from the University of Florida’s International Shark Attack File, there have been approximately 70 to 80 gratuitous shark bites worldwide each year in the past decade, with only 57 gratuitous bites in 2022. rice field. Five of those were fatal, down from nine in 2021. .
Over the past decade, there have been approximately 70-80 gratuitous shark bites worldwide each year, compared to just 57 in 2022. (Getty Images)
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Most reports of shark bites have occurred in the United States and Australia, with Florida having the most cases last year with 16, two of which resulted in amputations.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
