A woman died from injuries caused by a shark on Bahía de Melaque beach in Jalisco, Mexico.
The fire department was informed that there was a person in the Punta Farallón water park and cooperative area who was having difficulty getting out of the sea.
The 26yearold victim was identified as María Fernanda Martínez Jiménez, a marine biologist trained at the Centro Universitario de la Costa Sur.
According to witnesses, she was swimming with her fiveyearold son about 20 meters from the beach. When she helped her son climb onto an inflatable platform, she also had difficulty climbing, Rafael Araiza González, director of Cihuatlán’s Civil Defense and Fire Department, told El Occidental newspaper.
Witnesses also said that she tried to save her son from the animal’s attack but was dragged to the bottom of the sea and drowned.
When officers arrived at the scene, they discovered the woman’s left leg was severed and had no vital signs. The tragedy led to the closure of beaches on the south coast indefinitely and local authorities are investigating what happened.
In a statement published by X, formerly Twitter, the municipality of La Huerta warned the population about the presence of sharks on the southern coast of Jalisco.
BULL SHARK
This Sunday morning (3), the biologist and professor at the University of Guadalajara, Bernabé Aguilar Palomino, a specialist in sharks, was called by sailors and forensic institutions that were on the scene to determine which species attacked the woman.
He confirmed that it was a bull shark after comparing the marks of the victim’s teeth, bite and shape of the wounds with the jaws he had in his collection.
In a post on Facebook, biologist Jorge Saul Ramirez Perez announced the results of the analysis and explained that the Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa had already issued a technical opinion recommending not to use inflatable boats in another area, near Mazatlán , to install.
According to experts, the shadow created by inflatable boats like those in the park in Melaque attracts the attention of sharks and other marine predators because they resemble clumps of marine vegetation that attract schools of fish, as conservationist Jesús Garcia explains in another post on Facebook.
The inflatable structure installed in Melaque features slides and diving platforms and, according to experts, resembles socalled underwater fish aggregators, controversial devices used in fishing that mimic tufts of algae.