Tourists attempting to photograph sharks in shallow water on beaches in the Turkish and Caicos Islands this month were bitten by it and ran off the island to get medical care, local government said.
Tourists were treated at a hospital and before she left the island, they sought the sun surrounded by a sea of turquoise, a sandy 38-square-mile magnet for Providenciales, a snorkeler.
The shark was about six feet long, but the species was unknown, according to the Turkish and Caicos governments.
Tourists “tryed to interact with animals” to take photos before being bitten on February 7, the Ministry of Environment and Coastal Resources in Turkey and Caicos said in a statement.
Her identity was not released immediately, and authorities did not explain the extent of her injuries.
The beach was closed, but reopened on February 9th after it was discovered that the sharks had moved into deeper water, according to the Environment Department. The archipelago, the Turks and Caicos, are British territory and one of the most intense tourist destinations in the Caribbean.
Shark bites are extremely rare and usually an accident, experts say. However, sharks can cause severe wounds if they mistake humans for prey.
Around the world, 88 confirmed or potential shark bites were recorded last year by the University of Florida, an organization tracking shark data.
According to the organization, 24 people were provoked. This means that a human has begun contact with a shark. Four people died from shark bites. One of the bites recorded last year was the Turks and Caicos. It was not fatal.
File director Gavin Naylor said on Saturday it was too early to say whether this month's Turks and Caicos biting was not provoked or provoked.
However, New York fisherman and conservationist Chris Stefanow, a New York fisherman tagging sharks, said taking photos of sharks could be risky, and sharks could call for fish. He said it might have been confusing.
“Sharks, or predatory animals in the ocean, can confuse them like feeding fish,” Stefanow said, referring to the small, shiny fish that attract sharks to the shore. “Sharks didn't just look at humans. That didn't happen.”
According to Royal Bahamas police, the episode didn't just report a shark bite in the Caribbean on February 7th.
Naylor said that two bites in the area in a day were unusual and made him “sit a little.”
However, it was not clear whether there was a trend. According to international shark attack files, the number of unidentified shark bites has decreased from 69 last year.
