A woman visiting the Bahamas from Boston was killed by a shark while kayaking off the coast of a resort on Monday, authorities said.
The 44-year-old woman, whose name has not been released, was less than a mile offshore of the Sandals resort when she was attacked, said Royal Bahamas Police Sgt. Desiree Ferguson.
A rescuer saw what happened, so he boarded a rescue boat and returned the woman, along with an unharmed male relative, to the shore of New Providence, an island in the Bahamas.
“CPR was performed on the victim, but she sustained serious injuries to the right side of her body, including her right hip area as well as her right upper extremity,” Ferguson said.
Medical technicians determined that the woman died at the scene, according to a press release From the Royal Bahamas Police power. The authorities did not say what type of shark attacked the woman.
Recent shark attacks
Two weeks ago, a 47-year-old German woman disappeared after encountering a shark in the waters off West End, Grand Bahama. According to Reuters. In June, an Iowa woman had her leg amputated after she was bitten by a shark in the Bahamas. In September 2022, a 58-year-old woman from Pennsylvania was killed in a shark attack that occurred while she was snorkeling with her family off the coast of Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas.
A Mexican woman was killed on Saturday in a shark attack after she was bitten while swimming with her five-year-old daughter off the coast of Melakai.
Shark attacks are uncommon
Shark attacks, especially fatal ones, are rare, said Gavin Naylor, program director of the International Shark Attack File, a database that tracks such incidents.
Last year, there were 57 unprovoked bites across the planet, most of them in the United States, according to the file, compiled by the Florida Museum of Natural History and the University of Florida. In the Bahamas, there have been at least 33 confirmed unprovoked shark attacks since 1580, according to the file.
Naylor said there is a strong correlation between shark attacks and the number of people and sharks in the water at the same time. While this may be an obvious point, he said, it reaffirms that sharks do not intentionally pursue humans.
It is known by researchers that sharks bite people when they feel confused or curious. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. For example, if a shark sees a person splashing in the water, it may try to investigate, resulting in an accidental attack.
“If people were targeted by sharks, we would see 1,000 bites a day. But we don’t,” Naylor said. “In fact, humans and sharks go out of their way to avoid each other.”
Christopher Kahn is a breaking news correspondent for USA TODAY. You can reach him via email at [email protected] or follow him at X@ChrisCannFL.
