List of fatal, unprovoked shark attacks in the United States

This is a list of fatal, unprovoked shark attacks that occurred in United States territorial waters by decade in reverse chronological order. A pink background indicates that the greater weight of the evidence suggests that this victim died from a cause of death other than a shark attack; however, at least one source at some point in time has identified shark attack as the cause of death.

The badly injured youth was rushed to St. Luke's Hospital in New Bedford. He died on the operating table that night while surgeons were amputating his left leg. The boy, along with a family friend, had been swimming out from the beach to meet the Black Cat, a catboat that had just picked up its mooring after a morning sail, when the shark attacked, Smith said.

The Black Cat's owner, Hubert Fisher, jumped into his dinghy and, with the help of the other swimmer, Walter Stiles of Boston, got the boy aboard and took him to the beach.

Using an old wooden door as a stretcher, neighbors carried the badly injured teen to a car and he was rushed to the hospital. The wind had been from the southeast the day before the attack, he said, a condition that roils the bottom and results in poor visibility. That could have been a critical factor, producing an instinctive reaction from the shark when it saw the flash of a swimmer's white leg, Smith said he believes.

The Standard-Times report of the incident said Joseph Troy was still conscious when he was wheeled into the operating room for the amputation.

The attending surgeon, Dr. E.D. Gardner, said the boy told him he was horrified not so much by the bite as the thought of being dragged down while in the grip of the shark.

In the aftermath of the attack, beaches around Buzzards Bay were deserted and swimming came to a halt along much of the Massachusetts coast, the newspaper reported.

Although the attack was without precedent, sharks had previously been observed in Buzzards Bay. Just a week earlier, a 6-foot shark had been caught in Marion harbor.

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