The whole point of a shark tank — the literal kind, I mean, not the one that involves business pitches to Mark Cuban and Kevin “Mr. Wonderful” O’Leary, inter alia — is that one is able to swim with some of the aquatic world’s most dangerous predators while still being kept safe by precautions that prevent the apex predators from biting you.
Unfortunately, at the Atlantis Paradise Island Resort in the Bahamas, only one of those two things happened. Because this involves a shark tank, you can probably guess which one it was.
According to reports from TMZ and Fox Business, a Maryland boy is recovering in a hospital after a shark attack at the resort on Monday — an attack which was caught on camera by a nearby family.
The incident took place in what appears to be a combination shark tank and water slide. In the footage, as the camera is focused on the slide, screams can be heard on the other side of the tank.
Those screams were from the 10-year-old boy and an unidentified man calling for help.
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“Get him out of the water!” one individual can be heard screaming.
“What the hell?” a female voice off-camera asks.
“He got bit. He got bit by a shark. He got bit by a shark, mom,” another voice says as the boy appears to be pulled out of the water.
“Where’s Ben? Where’s Ben?” a voice can be heard asking, frantically.
Would you ever swim with sharks?
“He’s right here, he’s right here, honey,” another voice assures the woman.
Screaming can be heard throughout; the clip stops as one of the voices behind the camera says, “guys, c’mon, let’s go.”
WARNING: The following video contains graphic footage that some viewers will find offensive.
The attraction in question wasn’t run by the resort itself, but instead by a company called Blue Adventures by Stuart Cove. The company said that both a dive instructor and dive guide were in the water at the time the boy was attacked.
Stuart Cove, the eponymous owner of the venture, said this was the first attack since the attraction opened in 2006. It’s since been shut down for obvious reasons.
Cove added that the company had “begun a thorough investigation” and was “fully cooperating” with police. The in-water shark encounter attraction would be closed “as we review the findings,” he added.
“Incidents like this involving interactions with marine life, even with the species of sharks included in this experience, are rare and never acceptable,” Cove told Fox Business.
The two species of sharks housed in the tank, TMZ reported, are the nurse shark and the Caribbean reef shark, neither of which is considered among the most dangerous members of the shark family.
Nurse sharks are “exceptionally sedentary, unlike most other shark species,” according to a 2017 scientific paper on catching, tagging and releasing the sharks authored by Serge Aucoin of Fisheries and Oceans Canada and published by the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service. However, another 2015 paper found that the species is responsible for the fourth-highest number of recorded shark attacks, although none have reported to be fatal.
Caribbean reef sharks are also known to be among the more docile shark species, normally avoiding divers if possible, according to CBS News. Only four unprovoked nonfatal attacks involving the species have been recorded from 1580 to the present, according to the University of Florida’s International Shark Attack File, and no unprovoked fatal attacks have been logged.
It’s unclear which species attacked the boy, or if another was involved. What is known is that the 10-year-old is recovering from a leg bite and was in stable condition as of Thursday, according to a Royal Bahamas Police Force media release.
All’s well that ends — well, non-fatally, at least. However, despite the fact that nurse and Caribbean reef sharks are among the least dangerous species of the predators, they still present dangers, especially to a prepubescent child. It may seem fun and exotic, and the presence of trained instructors on a high-end resort site can indeed inspire confidence.
Remember, though: Discretion still remains the better part of valor, particularly when it comes to your children. If your kid really wants to risk getting bitten hard in a shark tank and have the whole thing filmed, have him pitch his idea for a meme crypto coin to Mark Cuban. Much like the dog in the meme, he may not bite, but he’ll definitely hurt you in other ways.
