Shark encounter ends in young woman's foot being bitten off
A US woman from Connecticut has had her foot bitten off by a shark whist snorkelling in Turks and Caicos.
She was in the water with her friend, who was unharmed in the shocking encounter, with the holiday part of a celebration after recently graduating from Yale.
In some reports the unnamed woman, who remains in hospital in Miami - where she was flown to following the incident - stated that the woman had her leg bitten off, but it was her foot, which sadly has not been able to be attached.
A spokesperson from the Department of Environment & Coastal Resources for Turks and Caicos said: "Though incidents such as these are highly unusual in the Turks & Caicos Islands, swimmers, snorkelers and divers and boat operators are reminded to exercise caution on the water."
A view of one of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
The incident remains under investigation and currently the species of shark responsible remains unidentified, but local reports suggest it could be a Caribbean Reef Shark.
Although such reports of shark encounters in the news are distressing to read and can make it seem that such 'shark attacks’ are commonplace, they are in fact extremely rare.
Earlier this year the International Shark Attack File (ISAF) announced that with 57 unprovoked shark bites in 2022, it was the joint lowest number recorded for the last decade.
Five of those shark attacks from 2022 were fatal, which again is down from nine in 2021 and 10 from the year before that.
Tiger sharks and Bull sharks have been found in Turks and Caicos waters
That means though that when such encounters do occur, especially those that end in loss of limbs or are fatal, that they inevitably make waves across print broadcast and social media.
The death of Stella Barry in a river in Australia earlier this year, which was the first in the region for almost 100 years, being a case in point, or the unfortunate man who was decapitated by a shark at the start of the year.
When sharks and humans aware the same space, such encounters are always going to occur, no matter how slim the odds. If you are going into the water, here's how you can help improve those odds of not encountering a shark next time you enter the water.
Words by Dean Newman
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