In July, a surfer lost his leg after a great white shark attacked him in Australia. The month before that, surfer Tamayo Perry died after sustaining fatal injuries in a shark attack off the island of Oahu in Hawaii. In January, a young fisherman diving for scallops was killed by a shark off the Pacific coast of Mexico.

A German woman died after she was attacked by a shark while swimming beside her catamaran in high seas between Spain's Canary Islands and West Africa, a police spokesperson said on Wednesday.