FACT CHECK: No sharks have ever killed people in Spain’s Canary Islands

The death of a German tourist after being attacked by a shark has been covered in national and international media as having occurred in waters near the Canary Islands. However, the truth is very different.

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Social media has been awash with the news of a German tourist who died after being attacked by a shark off Spain’s Canary Islands, an incident reported by the local coastguard on Tuesday September 17th.
The 30-year-old woman lost a leg in the attack and then suffered a heart attack while on a Spanish rescue helicopter, dying before reaching the hospital in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria where was being taken to.
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Although the news is tragic, in most cases the shark attack is being wrongly reported as having occurred “off the Canary Islands”, a cause for alarm for the millions of international tourists who visit the sunny archipelago every year, as well as for the Canaries’ approximately two million inhabitants.

Examples of English-language media wrongly reporting that the fatal shark attack on a German tourist took place in Canary Islands waters. Screenshot: Google
In fact, the woman was sailing in a catamaran more than 500 kilometres south of the Canary Islands when the attack happened.
That, by anyone’s estimates, does not constitute ‘off the Canary Islands’. 

The incident took place much closer to the coastal cities of Dakhla and Bir Gandouz, which are part of the disputed territory of Western Sahara that is currently occupied/governed by Morocco.
Most people have never heard of these cities, and when the aim of media outlets is to generate clicks rather than report more accurately, opting for the well-known Canary Islands in the headline is what generates more attention. 
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To give you an idea of how much 500 kilometres is, the distance between Madrid in central Spain and Málaga on Spain’s southern Costa del Sol is 534 km, a distance which takes over five hours by car to cover. 
The Canaries are indeed close to both Western Sahara and Morocco, with around 100 kilometres separating the easterly island of Fuerteventura from the Moroccan city of Tarfaya.
Furthermore, there are bodies of water south of the Canaries that are disputed between Spain and Morocco, but the shark attack on the German tourist did not take place in one of these, rather in what’s called a Moroccan Exclusive Economic Zone.
Therefore it would be far more accurate to say that the shark attack happened off Western Sahara or Morocco, depending on one’s political affiliations.
Do shark attacks actually happen in Spain’s Canary Islands?
Since international records began around the year 1500, there have been 3,349 shark attacks around the world. 
Of these shark attacks, only thirteen of them have occurred in Spain and just seven were recorded in waters around the Canary Islands.
This is according to data from the International Shark Attack File of Florida’s Museum of Natural History, run by the University of Florida.
Their data shows that four shark attacks took place in waters around Gran Canaria, one in Tenerife, another in Fuerteventura, and the seventh has no exact location specified.
While it is of interest that all of these shark attacks in waters around the Atlantic archipelago took place between 2004 and 2019, none of them have been fatal. There have been shark sightings in the Canaries in 2024, but no attacks.
Therefore, it is inaccurate to say that this latest deadly shark attack, nor any other, took place in Canary Island waters.
There has only been one recorded fatal shark attack in Spanish waters, which according to records occurred in 1902 in the Balearic Islands.
READ MORE: Which sharks are found in Spain and are they at all dangerous?

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#canary islands
#Environment
#Opinion and Analysis

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Social media has been awash with the news of a German tourist who died after being attacked by a shark off Spain’s Canary Islands, an incident reported by the local coastguard on Tuesday September 17th.
The 30-year-old woman lost a leg in the attack and then suffered a heart attack while on a Spanish rescue helicopter, dying before reaching the hospital in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria where was being taken to.
Although the news is tragic, in most cases the shark attack is being wrongly reported as having occurred “off the Canary Islands”, a cause for alarm for the millions of international tourists who visit the sunny archipelago every year, as well as for the Canaries’ approximately two million inhabitants.

In fact, the woman was sailing in a catamaran more than 500 kilometres south of the Canary Islands when the attack happened.
That, by anyone’s estimates, does not constitute ‘off the Canary Islands’. 
The incident took place much closer to the coastal cities of Dakhla and Bir Gandouz, which are part of the disputed territory of Western Sahara that is currently occupied/governed by Morocco.
Most people have never heard of these cities, and when the aim of media outlets is to generate clicks rather than report more accurately, opting for the well-known Canary Islands in the headline is what generates more attention. 
To give you an idea of how much 500 kilometres is, the distance between Madrid in central Spain and Málaga on Spain’s southern Costa del Sol is 534 km, a distance which takes over five hours by car to cover. 
The Canaries are indeed close to both Western Sahara and Morocco, with around 100 kilometres separating the easterly island of Fuerteventura from the Moroccan city of Tarfaya.
Furthermore, there are bodies of water south of the Canaries that are disputed between Spain and Morocco, but the shark attack on the German tourist did not take place in one of these, rather in what’s called a Moroccan Exclusive Economic Zone.
Therefore it would be far more accurate to say that the shark attack happened off Western Sahara or Morocco, depending on one’s political affiliations.
Do shark attacks actually happen in Spain’s Canary Islands?
Since international records began around the year 1500, there have been 3,349 shark attacks around the world. 
Of these shark attacks, only thirteen of them have occurred in Spain and just seven were recorded in waters around the Canary Islands.
This is according to data from the International Shark Attack File of Florida’s Museum of Natural History, run by the University of Florida.
Their data shows that four shark attacks took place in waters around Gran Canaria, one in Tenerife, another in Fuerteventura, and the seventh has no exact location specified.
While it is of interest that all of these shark attacks in waters around the Atlantic archipelago took place between 2004 and 2019, none of them have been fatal. There have been shark sightings in the Canaries in 2024, but no attacks.
Therefore, it is inaccurate to say that this latest deadly shark attack, nor any other, took place in Canary Island waters.
There has only been one recorded fatal shark attack in Spanish waters, which according to records occurred in 1902 in the Balearic Islands.
READ MORE: Which sharks are found in Spain and are they at all dangerous?