The victim managed to get back to the beach, where other beachgoers assisted her until she was taken to hospital. Photo: GoFundMe
A Canadian tourist traveling in the Caribbean lost both of her hands when she tried to take a picture with a shark.
According to reports, the woman, who is 55 years old, was bitten just a few yards offshore on Friday, February 7. Local authorities told reporters that she “attempted to engage” with the shark in the waters of Thompson Cove Beach in the Turks and Caicos Islands when the incident occurred.
“After leaving the beach to join her husband, in only hip deep clear water, a seven-foot bull shark came at my sister-in-law and bumped into her legs,” wrote the victim’s brother-in-law on GoFundMe. “The shark then circled around and bit her thigh. Not satisfied, the shark came back again and when she put both hands in front of her to protect herself, the shark cut off both of her hands, one at mid-forearm and the other at the wrist. Her husband, having rushed back to help, then managed to wrestle away the shark and stayed between her and the shark until she walked out of the water and collapsed on the beach.”
A statement from Turks and Caicos authorities confirms that basics of that account.
“The shark was estimated to be approximately 6 feet in length,” authorities said. “However, the species is yet to be confirmed. It has been determined that the tourist had attempted to engage with the animal from the shallows in an attempt to take photographs.”
Shark attacks are not common in the Turks and Caicos. In 2024, only one was reported. However, the shark tourism industry is booming, despite the Cayman Islands making it illegal to feed sharks in 2022.
“Some people believe feeding sharks is great for business or will increase tips from customers, and some even mistakenly believe that conditioning sharks to take speared lionfish will somehow teach them to hunt lionfish out of reef crevices,” Turks and Caicos authorities said. “But teaching sharks to take food from divers only really endangers both humans and sharks.”
