An American cruise ship passenger was fatally attacked while snorkeling in the Bahamas on Tuesday, authorities said. The victim, who was identified only as a 58-year-old woman from Pennsylvania, was mauled at a snorkeling hot spot in Green Cay in the northern Bahamas. “It’s unfortunate,” police spokeswoman Chief Superintendent Chrislyn Skippings said, adding that the victim’s family believed the animal was a bull shark. Royal Caribbean International said the woman, who had been attending a shore excursion in Nassau during a voyage on Harmony of the Seas, died after being rushed to a local hospital. Michael Heithaus, a marine biologist at Florida International University in Miami, said that while the Bahamas has several species of shark, only bull and tiger sharks pay attention to humans. “They get to very large sizes, and they eat big prey,” he said, while stressing that attacks on people remain rare.
