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The Washington Post

Associated Press

A forearm discovered in the belly of a tiger shark in the idyllic waters off Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean is likely that of a Scottish tourist who disappeared while snorkelling, authorities say.
Edinburgh man Richard Martyn Turner, 44, vanished on Saturday in a lagoon off the Reunion Island coast while snorkelling, prompting a days-long search that included capturing and opening up tiger sharks to find signs of a human.
An autopsy of one of the sharks revealed the man’s fate. His severed hand was found inside one of them, Réunion La 1ère reported. His wife identified it by the wedding ring still on his finger.
Reunion Island Prosecutor Eric Tuffery said on Friday that authorities were using other tools including DNA research to confirm Turner’s identity.
‘Right out of that movie Jaws’: Man dies after shark attack off Cape Cod
It was not clear if Turner was attacked or was already dead when he was eaten.
“One possibility is that he became unwell while in the lagoon and was taken by the currents into deeper water,” a search and rescue worker told British media.
UK officials at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office declined to identify the tourist, although Scottish media reported he was from Edinburgh and was at Reunion Island to celebrate his wife’s 40th birthday.
“We are providing support to the family of a British man who died while snorkelling in La Réunion and are in contact with the local authorities,” a spokesman for the office said.
Reunion Island, a French overseas territory, sits between a so-called “shark’s highway” linking South Africa and Australia.
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Shark attacks – mostly by bulls and tigers – increased 23-fold on the island between 2005 and 2016, researchers have said, pointing to a boom in development and the volcanic origins as two contributing factors.
There have been 11 shark attack fatalities on the island since 2010, including two this year.
In May, a surfer died after his leg was bitten off in an area where surfing is off limits, and a fisherman was killed in January, USA Today reported.
“Hawaii is not so different from Reunion,” Gavin Naylor, the programme director for the Florida Program for Shark Research, told The Washington Post on Friday.
“These remote volcanic islands rising up from the sea floor and provide good habitat for fishes including large sharks,” he said, including tiger, bull and Galapagos sharks.




Those sharks collide with tourists drawn to the island’s pristine waters, and the chances of contact increase, Naylor said.
Bull sharks prefer muddy waters and freshwater estuaries, and run-off from development may have helped create those conditions, Marc Soria, a shark researcher, told Smithsonian Magazine.
And the volcanic island’s steep floor may also funnel the deepwater tiger sharks closer to the shoreline, he said. Tiger sharks are second only to great whites in worldwide attacks, according to National Geographic.
“These large, blunt-nosed predators have a duly earned reputation as man-eaters,” according to the magazine. “But because they have a near completely undiscerning palate, they are not likely to swim away after biting a human, as great whites frequently do.”
Reunion Island has taken extreme measures to combat the rise in shark attacks, including a ban on surfing and swimming for most of the shoreline and the installation of shark fences to ward off the predators.


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Animals

Hand of missing tourist found in belly of shark off Reunion Island in Indian Ocean

Reunion Island, a French overseas territory, sits between a so-called ‘shark’s highway’ linking South Africa and Australia. Photo: Shutterstock

US woman found dead with python wrapped around her neck, in house containing 140 snakes

A file image of a python found in Thailand. Photo: AP

‘Right out of that movie Jaws’: Man dies after shark attack off Cape Cod

Two people look out from the shore after a reported shark attack at Newcomb Hollow Beach in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, on Saturday. Photo: AP

Steve McFadden, 49, of Plattsburgh, N.Y. gazes at Long Nook Beach in Truro, Mass., on Thursday, Aug. 16, 2018. Authorities closed the Cape Cod beach to swimmers after a man was attacked by a shark on Wednesday, the first attack on a person in Massachusetts since 2012. The unidentified victim survived the attack and was airlifted to a Boston hospital. (AP Photo/William J. Kole)

Walrus attacks and sinks Russian Navy boat in Arctic Ocean

Miru, a female walrus at the Ocean Park in Hong Kong. Photo: Handout

Walrus Polosa and her little son swim outside together at the Hagenbeck zoo in Hamburg, Germany, Thursday, May 23, 2019. The 23 years old mother gave birth to the little walrus two weeks ago. (Christian Charisius/dpa via AP)

Shark attacks 12-year-old girl near Australia’s Great Barrier Reef

Australia ranked behind only the United States in the number of unprovoked shark encounters with humans in 2017. Photo: Shutterstock

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World

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Richard Turner vanished after snorkelling in a lagoon off the island, prompting a search for him that included opening up sharks
His wife identified the hand by the wedding ring still on his finger



Richard Turner’s wife identified the hand after it was found with the wedding ring still on his finger.
