Teen Who Suffered Shark Bite Near Turneffe Loses Leg

On Tuesday, a fifteen-year-old girl who was diving with her family, lost a leg after sharks attacked her. The teen, Annabelle Carlson, had reportedly completed a dive with the Belize Dive Pro company between Hot Caye and Halfmoon Caye around eleven-thirty on Tuesday. The girl reportedly jumped back into the water and that was when a shark bit her leg. It’s the first time, at least in recent memory, that an attack of this nature has occurred in Belize. It is one that the Minister of Blue Economy, Andre Perez said should not label coastal Belize as unsafe since this was a very rare incident.

 

Andre Perez, Minister of Blue Economy

“One of the most important things I want to share right now is that we are being informed that the victim is okay, is alive, made it. What is the magnitude of the damage, we don’t know as yet, but it’s certainly an unfortunate situation. We’re very saddened about it, but I want to highlight that this is something that is very rare and I don’t think this is a time to say, well, you know, we don’t want to go swimming again or something. There must be some other reason why that happened, but it’s too early to say right now.”

 

Reporter

“For tourists who may be wondering if it’s safe to swim in our waters, what do you have to say to them?”

 

Andre Perez

“Listen, this is a very rare case. While we are saddened about it, we look at the facts. For the past thirty years as such, we have never had any kind – this type of accident as such. There’s nothing, I believe there’s, nothing to be worried about, that we’re scared or something, whatever. We’re safe.”