It’s rare you hear of shark attacks in the waters of Guam because most of the island is surrounded by a protective reef about a mile out from it’s shores, and sharks rarely come inside the reef whether it’s because the reef blocks them from swimming in or just because the waters are to shallow within the reef.

Yesterday was the exception, a man swimming inside the reef at Ritidian Point which is on the north side of Guam was bit by  a shark.  The man said he didn’t know what type of shark it was, but did need to go to Guam Memorial Hospital to receive surgery.

The last known shark bite case happened in 2006 when a Japanese tourist was bitten by a tiger shark while scuba diving at Gun Beach.  According to the report the shark was chasing a turtle which swam through the group of scuba diver and it’s teeth scraped one of the Japanese tourists leg.

In most shark attack cases, like in the case above, sharks usually mistake the person they bite as either a seal, turtle, or other type of sea life they often feed upon.  Once the shark realizes the person isn’t “lunch” so to speak they usually stop biting and swim off.

Guam does have a variety of sharks which live in the surrounding waters including black-tip sharks, white-tip sharks, nurse sharks, tiger sharks, and hammerhead sharks just to name a few.  Most of these sharks usually live and swim outside of Guam’s protective coral reef.

It’s safe to say most tourists and visitors to Guam shouldn’t be concerned about shark attacks while swimming inside the reef.  The amount of shark attacks on Guam is extremely minimal when compared to other places around the world and shouldn’t be a deterrent for swimming in the beautiful ocean waters of Guam.