Species identification of the shark involved in the 2007 Lifou fatal attack on a swimmer: A reply to Tirard et al. (2015)

Abstract

Based on new photographs of the wound, Tirard et al. (2015) tried to demonstrate that the shark involved in a fatal attack on a human in Lifou in 2007 had homodont teeth and that it sawed the femur instead of directly cutting it, promoting the hypothesis that it was a tiger shark instead of a white shark. They also contested the data provided by the direct witness of the attack about the behaviour of the shark, specific to this former species. The evidences they provide are not convincing and, based on the absence of tissue loss and description of a jumping behaviour, we still believe that it was a single bite-and-spit attack by a white shark.

Keywords: ISAF; Misidentification; New Caledonia; Shark attack; Wound.