Boston tourist killed by shark while paddleboarding in the Bahamas, police say

A woman visiting the Bahamas from Boston was killed by a shark while she was paddleboarding off the coast of a resort on Monday, authorities said.

The 44-year-old woman, whose name has not been released, was less than a mile from the shoreline of a Sandals resort when she was attacked, said Royal Bahamas Police Sgt. Desiree Ferguson.

A lifeguard saw what happened, got in a rescue boat and brought the woman, along with a male relative who was uninjured, back to the shore of New Providence, an island in the Bahamas.

"CPR was administered to the victim; however, she suffered serious injuries to the right side of her body, including the right hip region and also her right upper limb," said Ferguson.

Medical technicians determined that the woman died at the scene, according to a news release from the Royal Bahamas Police Force. Authorities have not said what kind of shark attacked the woman.

Recent shark attacks

Two weeks ago, a 47-year-old German woman went missing after she encountered a shark in the waters off West End, Grand Bahama, according to Reuters. In June, an Iowa woman had her leg amputated after she was bitten by a shark in the Bahamas. And, in September 2022, a 58-year-old woman from Pennsylvania was killed in a shark attack that occurred while she was snorkeling with her family off the coast of Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas.

On Saturday, a Mexican woman was killed in a shark attack after she was bitten while swimming with her five-year-old daughter off the coast of Melaque.

Shark attacks are uncommon

Shark attacks, especially those that are fatal, are rare occurrences, said Gavin Naylor, the program director of the International Shark Attack File, a database which tracks such incidents.

Last year, there were 57 unprovoked bites around the planet, the majority of them in the U.S., according to the file, based out of the Florida Museum of Natural History and the University of Florida. In the Bahamas, there have been at least 33 confirmed unprovoked shark attacks since 1580, the file states.

Naylor said there is a strong correlation between shark attacks and the number of people and sharks in the water at the same time. He said that, while this may be an obvious point, it reiterates that sharks are not intentionally going after humans.

Sharks are known by researchers to bite people when they are confused or curious, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. For instance, if a shark sees someone splashing in the water, it may try to investigate, leading to an accidental attack.

"If people were targeted by sharks, we'd see 1,000 bites a day. We don't," Naylor said. "In fact, humans and sharks do their best to avoid one another."

Christopher Cann is a breaking news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him via email at [email protected] or follow him on X @ChrisCannFL.