A 17-year-old teenager was bitten by a shark after he brought the shark onto a boat off the coast of Galveston, Texas. The incident occurred during a boat trip with his father and another person. Emergency services were called around 3.30pm on Monday when the teen was bitten on the arm, and his father tried to stop the bleeding using a tourniquet. Unfortunately, the boat lost power while still at sea, leaving the injured teenager stranded.

Police notified the Coast Guard Command Centre about the situation, reporting that the teen had been bleeding for two hours despite the tourniquet, and was in a critical state. The boy’s father had quickly applied a tourniquet before the arrival of the Galveston Island Beach Patrol at 3.30pm, following the shark bite that occurred approximately two hours earlier.

Rescue teams, including the Coast Guard, provided medical treatment by applying a second tourniquet to the boy’s arm. He was later transported to the University of Texas Medical Branch after the boat reached land. The current status of his condition is unknown.

Galveston County Sheriff Jimmy Fullen clarified that the incident was not a shark attack in the water but rather occurred when the shark was brought onboard. The shark may have bitten the teen while he was trying to remove a hook from its mouth.

Shark encounters in Texas are rare, with only 19 incidents documented since 1911, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History. The International Shark Attack File (ISAF) investigated 105 reported shark-human interactions globally in 2025, confirming 65 unprovoked bites and 29 provoked bites. These figures align with the average number of incidents per year over the past five years (2020 to 2024), as reported by ISAF.