Summary of the news
- A Mexican diver was attacked by a shark while catching shells.
- Predator snapped the man’s head and both shoulders simultaneously.
- Incidents in which people are attacked are rare.
- Local fishermen have been warned not to go into the sea.
Great White Sharks are fierce predators, but they don’t typically attack human Pexels
Manuel Nieblas López was beheaded by a 5.8meter great white shark while diving for shellfish in the municipality of Benito Juárez, Mexico. The incident happened on January 5 of this year and was the world’s first recorded shark attack in 2023.
The fisherman was about 50 years old and owned a fishing cooperative in the municipality of Paredón Colorado. He conducted his activities on San Jose Beach, one of the myriad beaches along the Gulf of California, a region known as the “Aquarium of the World” due to the great diversity of marine life.
López was between 11 and 18 meters deep when the animal surfaced and simultaneously grabbed his head and shoulders.
José Bernal and another helper were on the rescue boat when they saw Manuel being brutally killed by the predator.
“Impressive how the shark ripped off his head and both his shoulders,” Bernal said in an interview with the website Tracking Sharks, which monitors attacks worldwide.
He also said that fishermen have been warned to avoid entering the water as the numbers of these animals are increasing in the fishing region.
Cases like this rarely happen. Sharks typically only attack humans when they mistake bathers, surfers, or divers for prey like a sea lion.
Greg Skomal, a marine biologist at Boston University, told Live Science that bites are usually registered on the person’s legs or torso and that decapitation is something that makes the event stranger and more unusual.
Experts in the area told British newspaper The Sun that Manuel could have avoided the attack if he had worn reflective wetsuits that would distinguish him from common shark prey.
One explanation for the event is that the smell of the shellfish that López had and the vibrations in the water attracted the shark, which attacked violently.
Unreleased images show the wreckage of the Titanic, taken in 1986 and only now released
The Titanic sank more than a century ago, in April 1912. Since then, the wreck of the symbolic ship has fascinated deepsea explorers
In 1986, a group of scientists managed to get close to the ship and took videos and pictures that have only now been published, some 36 years later.
They used HOVs (Human Occupied Vehicles) and smaller, unmanned submarines to reach the wreck, which lies 3km deep in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic.
During 11 dives in July 1986, footage was captured by cameras on a manned submersible and a small remotecontrolled vessel maneuvering in a confined space.
The Titanic was considered unsinkable when built and was the largest operational transatlantic ship at the time, but on April 14, 1912, on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York, she collided with an iceberg in the Atlantic.
More than 1,500 people died in the sinking, shocking the world and sparking outrage over the lack of lifeboats on board.