Tobago shark attack: Peter Smith now ‘able to communicate’
A statement from the wife of a British man who was severely injured in a shark attack in Tobago indicates that he remains conscious and able to communicate despite his injuries.
Peter Smith, aged 64, was attacked by a shark while he was on the Caribbean island with his wife Jo and some friends at Courland Bay on Friday morning. According to Mrs. Smith, two of their friends bravely stayed in the water to confront the shark.
Mr. Smith is currently receiving intensive care at Scarborough General Hospital on the island, where his condition is described as stable.
Mrs. Smith, from Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, explained that her husband sustained injuries to his left arm and leg, as well as puncture wounds to his abdomen and right hand. The full extent of these injuries is still being assessed by medical professionals at the hospital.
Medical staff are currently deliberating on the most appropriate course of treatment for Mr. Smith’s injuries. The Tobago House of Assembly reported that the shark involved in the incident was a bull shark estimated to be between eight to ten feet long and two feet wide.
Farley Augustine, the chief secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly, previously stated that Mr. Smith had undergone surgery to reattach some of his fingers and had sustained “significant wounds” to one of his legs, requiring extensive medical attention.
Mrs. Smith’s latest update indicates that as of 09:00 local time, her husband is conscious and able to communicate to some extent, although he remains under heavy medication.
She expressed gratitude to all those who assisted at the scene, particularly the two friends who bravely confronted the shark.
Mrs. Smith also thanked “the wonderfully kind people of Tobago for all their help and support”.
Eyewitness Orion Jakerov, water sports manager at the nearby Starfish resort, has said other people in the water were “physically trying to fight off the shark”.
He told the local broadcaster TTT Live: “I don’t think they saw it. They were about waist height in the water so they weren’t out of their depth.
“I think their backs were turned and they were just kind of lounging around. Nobody saw the shark coming.”
Authorities closed seven beaches and all coastal areas between the town of Plymouth on the island’s northern coast and Store Bay on its western tip, a stretch of around seven miles (11.3km), in the wake of the attack.
Drones were being used to carry out surveillance of the area, and anyone operating a boat was urged to exercise caution.
Bull sharks are known to be aggressive and are most often found in shallow waters along tropical coastlines, making them – along with great white and tiger sharks – among the species most likely to come into contact with and attack, humans.
A $10,000 (£8,010) bounty previously offered to anyone who could capture the shark and move it away from the beaches was retracted, Mr Augustine said on Saturday.
Tobago, the smaller of the two islands of Trinidad and Tobago, is located in the southern Caribbean, around 74 miles (119km) off the coast of South America.
