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A 55-year-old tourist visiting Turks and Caicos lost both hands to a shark attack after reportedly trying to grab the shark to pose with it just off a beach. The Turks & Caicos’ GDP is made up by 65% of tourism so the government was quick to release a statement after the woman’s hands were bitten off by a shark.
In the statement on social media, the Turks & Caicos government said the shark was estimated to be 6ft in length but the species was unknown at the time though some reports suggest that it was a bull shark which accounts for the third-most attacks all time behind great whites and tiger sharks.
The statement also went on to state that “it has been determined that the tourist had attempted to engage with the animal from the shallows in an attempt to take photographs.”
While the tourist’s name has not been released, reports from the New Zealand Herald and NY Post suggest the victim was a 55-year-old woman visiting from Canada. The incident occurred at Thompson Cove Beach which when you look at it on Google Maps/Earth the water is so clear you’d be able to see a shark from a satellite:
Google Maps
In the statement, they say the tourist “attempted to engage with the animal” which is a kind way of saying the person provoked the shark. According to reports, the attack occurred within just a few feet of the beach and the shark bit down on both arms. There may be some disturbing images in the video below detailing the Turks & Caicos shark attack so watch at your own risk:
The victim is believed to have one hand amputated below the wrist and the other arm was amputated halfway up the forearm. There is, on average, just one shark attack reported each year in Turks & Caicos. Feeding sharks was outlawed by the government several years ago for the express purpose of keeping tourists away from sharks but evidently that policy wasn’t restrictive enough.
That is partly due to it being a remote island destination that isn’t cheap to get to so there are far fewer people in the water there than say, Florida or California. It is also partly due to the water being crystal clear and swimmers being able to identify sharks from well over a hundred yards away.
However, the saying goes ‘play stupid games and win stupid prize’ and that appears to be what happened with this shark attack off the beach in Turks & Caicos though the full scope of the incident is not yet known.