A Texas teenager is recovering after being bitten by a barracuda while vacationing in Turks and Caicos. Sugar Land resident Claire Macdonel, 13, was swimming in shallow water when the fish bit her hand on Sunday, July 19.
Barracuda Attack
The teen was wearing a shiny bracelet on one of her wrists — which likely reflected light and was mistaken by the barracuda for prey. Her mother, Jen Macdonel, told Fox News Digital that the barracuda attack lacerated four of her daughter’s tendons, in addition to a nerve and a ligament.
Claire Macdonel told Fox News Digital, ‘I just felt a lot of pressure. And then I went up. I saw my hand bleeding a lot, and I said, “Mom, something bit me. I don’t know what to do.”‘ A nurse who had been in the water nearby applied a tourniquet to Claire Macdonel’s injured hand while the girl’s mother worked hard to understand what had just happened.
Warning to Tourists
Yannis Papastamatiou, an associate professor in biological sciences at Florida International University, told Fox News Digital that barracudas respond ‘immediately’ to anything they perceive as prey, though attacks on humans are very rare. ‘For the most part, we are clearly much too large to be considered prey,’ he said. ‘But if you are wearing anything shiny, they may perceive that as the movement of a smaller fish and respond.’
The incident came just weeks after Turks and Caicos made international headlines for a different reason. Earlier this summer, the U.S. State Department renewed its Level 2 ‘Exercise Increased Caution’ travel advisory for the Caribbean destination, citing reports of assaults, petty crime and scams targeting tourists.
Original reporting: Fox News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
