A 30-year-old German woman has tragically died after being attacked by a shark in the Atlantic Ocean, approximately 514 kilometres off the coast of the Canary Islands. According to Maritime Rescue (Salvamento Marítimo), she succumbed to her injuries while being flown by a Spanish Air Force helicopter to the Doctor Negrín Hospital in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
According to reports from the Efe news agency, the incident took place just before 4:00pm yesterday, Tuesday September 17th, about 180 kilometres west of the city of Dakhla, in the Western Sahara.
The woman was aboard a British registered catamaran named Dalliance Chichester when the attack occurred. The boat’s crew called for emergency assistance at 3:55pm, reaching out to the Spanish Maritime Rescue Service, which shares international rescue responsibilities in that region with the Moroccan Navy. Due to the lack of available resources in the area, Moroccan authorities requested that Spain take charge of the rescue operation.
Maritime Rescue immediately issued an alert to nearby vessels, one of which responded by providing the catamaran crew with medical supplies. A Spanish Air Force Search and Rescue (SAR) helicopter was dispatched from Gran Canaria and reached the vessel at 8:05pm to airlift the injured woman to hospital.
Unfortunately, the victim, who had lost a leg in the shark attack, went into cardiac arrest during the flight and was declared dead upon arrival at Doctor Negrín Hospital in Gran Canaria.
The catamaran had set sail from the port of Las Palmas on Saturday (September 14th), heading south. Tracking data from MarineTraffic.com and VesselFinder.com have confirmed the boat's route.
This tragic event marks a rare occurrence in the waters near the Canary Islands. According to the International Shark Attack File maintained by the Florida Museum of Natural History, there have only been six confirmed shark-related incidents in the Canary Islands, none of which were fatal. Additionally, no previous shark attacks have been documented in the area where Tuesday’s attack occurred. The closest recorded incident took place in Cape Verde, another African archipelago.
