By: Staff Writer
February 19, 2021
A shark was caught swimming dangerously close off of the shore of the French side of St Martin. Local beachgoers caught the animal and reeled it in for the safety of the other swimmers.
A citizen’s video of the shark capture was sent to Caribbean Magazine Plus.
The shark capture comes just less than three months when a tourist was killed by a shark in the same waters off of French St Martin.
The tourist, a French woman was killed off of Orient Bay, a popular beach on the French side of the Caribbean island. The victim was swimming approximately 150 metres offshore at the time. The woman had her entire leg torn off by the shark.
The attack shocked residents in St. Martin and in St. Maarten, the Dutch-controlled portion on the same island. St. Martin’s government banned all swimming and water sports for 48 hours after the death.
Just last month multiple sharks were dragged onshore on the island of Dominica, in a shark bonanza. Shark attacks, while rare, have been becoming more frequent over the last five years as more and more islands are reporting shark attacks.
Overall, there have been 34 unprovoked bites in the Caribbean region since 2000, four of which have been fatal, said researchers.