WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS GRAPHIC PHOTOS
Multiple unprovoked shark attacks against swimmers and fishermen in recent weeks have left beachgoers on edge ahead of summer and for Memorial Day weekend.
An American tourist was left in critical condition last week after losing her leg to a shark while vacationing in the Caribbean archipelago of Turks and Caicos.
The 22-year-old Connecticut female, who has not been identified, was snorkeling with friends off the coast of Providenciales island when the shark attacked, according to police.
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Days before the incident in Turks and Caicos, a 15-year-old Pennsylvania girl suffered injuries consistent with a shark attack while she was surfing off the coast of Stone Harbor in southern New Jersey, according to Fox 29.
The girl suffered lacerations to her leg and required six stitches after she was rescued from the water, but her injuries were not life-threatening.
"After careful examination, it has been ascertained by the New Jersey State Southern Regional Medical Examiner’s Office that the injuries sustained by the surfer are consistent with those typically associated with a shark of unknown size and type," Stone Harbor officials said in a statement.
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Earlier this month, two fishermen in the Florida Keys were bitten by sharks in separate incidents that occurred within less than 36 hours.
Kevin Blanco, 20, from Miami-Dade County was bitten in the leg on May 18 while spearfishing with two other people off Marathon, according to the Monroe County Sheriff's Office. He was picked up by a medical helicopter after he was taken to shore by a private boat.
Blanco told WSVN-TV from his hospital bed at Jackson South Medical Center in Miami that the bull shark that went after him "came out of nowhere" and chomped down on his leg twice.
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"I’ve been in that same situation a lot of times, and they are usually afraid of us," Blanco told the outlet. "That one was not afraid of us. He wanted me. It was a scary event."
Hours before Blanco had his run-in with a shark, a 35-year-old fisherman in Summerland Key was bitten on the foot after reeling the shark in while fishing off a dock, according to the sheriff’s office.
Scott Haraguchi recorded a tiger shark biting his kayak in Hawaii on May 12, and he told KITV in Honolulu that he was able to capture the moment with his GoPro because he had forgotten to turn it off after recording himself catching a fish.
"It was incredibly bad luck, but incredibly good luck to capture it," he told the outlet.
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Despite the recent attacks, unprovoked shark bites are rare and fatal ones are especially uncommon.
There were approximately 70 to 80 unprovoked shark bites each year worldwide over the past decade, with only 57 unprovoked bites in 2022. Of those, five were fatal, down from nine in 2021, according to data from the University of Florida’s International Shark Attack File.
Most reported shark bites happen in the U.S. and Australia, with Florida logging the highest number of incidents last year with 16, two of which led to amputations.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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