A nurse shark in Dugong Bay, Australia, attacked a woman Sunday, leaving her with a fracture and torn ligament in her hand.
The normally docile breed of shark attacked the woman while she was on a boat platform just above surface level, aggressively dragging her into the water as she shrieked. The woman was reaching to pet the shark when it bit her hand, and she escaped with help from people nearby.
Shocking video shows a shark biting the finger of a woman that attempted to feed it in Western Australia, dragging her into the water. She escaped with a fracture and a torn ligament. https://t.co/EWT1bFltDZ pic.twitter.com/C3cK488F2Q
— ABC News (@ABC) July 2, 2018
There have been a total of 52 recorded nurse shark attacks in the world, and none have resulted in fatalities.
“Nurse sharks are slow-moving bottom-dwellers and are, for the most part, harmless to humans. However, they can be huge—up to 14 feet—and have very strong jaws filled with thousands of tiny, serrated teeth, and will bite defensively if stepped on or bothered by divers who assume they’re docile,” National Geographic writes in its description of the shark.
Nurse sharks are normally found in the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific oceans. They can live up to 25 years and range from seven and a half to nearly 10 feet in length. The sharks weigh between 200 and 330 pounds, National Geographic reports.
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