A 44-year-old American from Boston visiting the Bahamas was fatally attacked by a shark while paddleboarding near a beach resort on Monday, as reported by local authorities. According to the Royal Bahamas Police Force, the woman had been traveling with a male relative.
Initial reports suggest that the victim, accompanied by a male relative, was bitten by a shark while paddle boarding away from the shore behind a resort in western New Providence, as stated in the release.
A resort lifeguard observed the incident and immediately took a boat into the water to assist the victim and their relative.
The woman received CPR from the lifeguard, according to the police.
According to a police release, the woman sustained significant damage to the right side of her body. Emergency medical technicians assessed her at the scene and determined that she was not showing any signs of life.
Wikimedia Commons
These small cookiecutter sharks sank an inflatable catamaran and sparked a dramatic rescue
The woman died shortly after 11 a.m. local time, police told CNN.
Authorities havent released the womans identity.
CNN has reached out to the US Embassy in the Bahamas for additional information.
Days after a woman was killed in a suspected shark attack at a Mexican resort, another incident has occurred. Emergency services found the woman dead at Melaque Bay in the Cihuatlán municipality. Fatal shark attacks are rare, with an average of five per year, according to CNN. The odds of being fatally attacked by a shark are less than 1 in 4 million, and experts often attribute shark bites to cases of mistaken identity, especially in waters with low visibility.
While rare, shark attacks still occur from time to time. In the Bahamas, a cruise ship passenger was fatally attacked by a shark while snorkeling last year. Additionally, in 2019, an American woman was also killed by three sharks while snorkeling in the same area.