The unnamed tourist was bitten as she grabbed the shark pup out of the water. Photo / YouTube
The unnamed tourist was bitten as she grabbed the shark pup out of the water. Photo / YouTube
She became a global laughing stock thanks to a now-infamous video that showed her being bitten while trying to take a selfie with a shark.
And now this tourist has been dealt a second blow after the incident on an island in the Fernando de Noronha archipelago off the coastof Brazil.
In a video posted online, the tourist could be seen frantically trying to free her hand from the jaws of the shark pup she had plucked out of shallow waters for a photo.
After friends rushed to help, the woman managed to free her hand and then tossed the shark back in the water. Off camera, she was taken to the island's Sao Lucas Hospital and received four stitches on her hand, according to reports.
The video attracted ridicule and harsh criticism after it was posted online.
"Wish it had taken her finger off. She'd have to admit for the rest of her life that she is a cruel and selfish idiot," one online commentator said.
Another commentator said: "Why? To put a photo on Facebook? Isn't it enough that animals have their own habitats destroyed, we have to harass them in their refuges? I hope she's learned her lesson."
Another said: "We've become such strangers to nature that casually grabbing a shark for a selfie now seems like a good idea.'
Now it has emerged the woman has been fined $8380 for her act of animal cruelty.
The Chico Mendes Biodiversity Institute enforced the fine after the shark was confirmed as an endangered lemon shark and the beach was a protected conservation area, the Mail Online reported.
Friends rushed to the woman's aid. Photo / YouTube, Don O'Van
Signs in the park warn visitors not to kill, catch, disturb or feed the animals.
Tourists have repeatedly been warned not to interfere with animals in the wild for photo opportunities, especially in light of a series of headline-making incidents.
Last month, a French tourist in Thailand learnt a lesson about getting too close to crocodile after she was bitten while trying to take a selfie with a croc at a national park in Khao Yai, north of Bangkok.
Also last month, a baby dolphin died while a mob of tourists took turns taking selfies with it.
The tourists dragged the tiny mammal out of the water in San Bernardo, south of Buenos Aires. It soon died as a result of being kept out of the water for too long.
It echoed a similar incident, also in Argentina, in 2016, in which tourists were accused of killing an endangered La Plata dolphin after they paraded it along the beach for selfies, causing the young animal to overheat and die.
Its tiny body was then left discarded on the sand.
