American 15-year-old loses leg in shark attack while vacationing in Belize

Shark attacks in the area are still rare, officials say

A 15-year-old girl from Colorado lost her right leg in a shark attack while on a diving excursion during a family vacation in Belize.

Annabelle Carlson was on a tour boat with her family Tuesday morning and had just finished scuba diving when she headed back into the water for a swim. That’s when the shark bit her near Half Moon Caye in the Gulf of Honduras, according to ABC News.

“It was a very aggressive, very traumatic, terror-filled fight for her life,” a GoFundMe page launched by a family friend to support the girl’s relatives stated. “Annabelle was able to fight off the attack as best as she could but was critically injured in the fight.”

The teenager is expected to survive the attack.

“Annabelle 1, shark 0,” states the GoFundMe, which has already raised $99,000 of its $250,000 goal.

Shark attacks in Belize are rare and one of this nature has not occurred in the country for at least 30 years, Andre Perez, the minister of Blue Economy and Aviation, noted during a press conference this week.

“There’s nothing to be worried about,” Perez said. “We are safe.”

Annabelle Carlson, a 15-year-old from Aspen, Colorado, lost her right leg in a shark attack in Belize this week (GoFundMe)

The girl and her family were on an excursion with the tour company Belize Dive Pro, and they had been headed to the Lighthouse Reef, an atoll in the Caribbean Sea.

“It was her right leg that received a bite from the shark,” Belize Coast Guard Admiral Elton Bennett said. “So, she lost her right leg.”

Tour operators were able to pull the teenager from the water and took her to a Coast Guard base, where emergency medical professionals stabilized her. Carlson was then airlifted to a local hospital in Belize City, and ultimately flown to a top trauma center in the US.

“She’s stable and she’s recovering at this time,” Bennett said.

The Independent emailed the Belize Coast Guard and government press office for comment.

Carlson is a sophomore at Aspen High School, where she plays lacrosse and basketball, according to a website that tracks high school sports.

Though shark attacks are making the news more frequently, they’re still very rare, even in areas where they appear to occur more often. According to the 2024 Shark Attack Map, there have been 52 shark bites in 2024.