A 17-year-old teenager was bitten by a shark while on a boat off the coast of Galveston, Texas. The incident occurred during a boat trip with the teen’s father and another individual. Emergency services were alerted around 3:30 pm when the teenager sustained injuries to his arm and his father attempted to control the bleeding with a tourniquet. Unfortunately, the boat experienced power loss, leaving the injured teenager stranded at sea.
Authorities contacted the Coast Guard Command Centre for assistance, reporting the dire situation. The Galveston Island Beach Patrol arrived at 3:30 pm to provide aid. The teenager’s father had promptly applied a tourniquet before the arrival of the rescue team, with the shark bite happening approximately two hours earlier.
After receiving initial treatment on the boat, the teenager was taken to the University of Texas Medical Branch for further medical care. The current status of his condition is undisclosed. Galveston County Sheriff Jimmy Fullen clarified that the incident involved the shark being brought on board the boat, rather than a shark attack in the water. The bite likely occurred when the teenager was trying to remove a hook from the shark’s mouth.
Shark-related incidents in Texas are uncommon, with only 19 reported cases since 1911 according to the Florida Museum of Natural History. The International Shark Attack File (ISAF) investigated 105 reported shark-human interactions worldwide in 2025. Among these, there were 65 unprovoked shark bites and 29 provoked bites, where humans initiated contact with the sharks. These figures align with the average of 61 incidents annually from 2020 to 2024, as reported by the ISAF.