A 10-year-old from Maryland, US, who was taking part in an immersive expedition to a shark aquarium in the Bahamas with his parents, had to be urgently airlifted out last Monday after he was attacked by one of the predators.
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“Preliminary reports indicate that the boy was bitten on the right leg by a shark while on an expedition to a shark aquarium at a resort on Paradise Island,” the Royal Marine Police said in a Bahamas press release last week, CNN reported .
On Monday, the 10-year-old boy was enjoying an exciting activity with his parents when one of the sharks allegedly targeted him.
“A dive instructor and guide were in the water with the guest when the incident occurred and immediately intervened to provide medical assistance,” Stuart Cove, owner of the company Blue Adventures, which offers the experience in question, told the American Media.
The boy was reportedly taken to a hospital in Nassau, where he is now in stable condition, according to local police. An investigation has been initiated to clarify the circumstances of the bite.
For his part, the owner of the company insisted that this was the first incident since the company began offering the shark swimming experience in 2006.
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“Incidents like this involving interactions with marine life, even among the shark species studied in this experiment, are rare and never acceptable. […] “Our support goes out to the child, parents and others affected by the incident,” Stuart Cove added, according to CNN.
Delivery has been suspended while the company launches an internal investigation, he added.
According to the Florida Museum of Natural History, which maintains an international file on shark attacks, they are actually quite rare, with the museum reporting just 108 cases of bites in 2022, including 32 “provoked bites” initiated by a human, so Global News reported.
However, some of these interactions can prove fatal. A 44-year-old woman is believed to have lost her life in a shark attack while paddling near a resort in the Bahamas last month, according to CNN.