On 10th of May 2026, DoE received a report of a severely wounded nurse shark from Jason Washington, Owner of Ambassador Divers, who was diving at Trinity Caves on the west side of Grand Cayman. The nurse shark was a young, female, approximately 110cm (3.6ft) long with deep cut wounds on top of the head, which would appear to be from a knife.
Upon receipt of the report, DoE’s citizen scince Sharklogger Network of local divers and snorkelers dedicated to collecting shark data, was alerted to monitor the shark’s health status. “Sharks have incredible self-healing powers. As long as a shark is able to swim, breath and feed, it is likely that the individual survives sustained injuries”, explains DoE Shark Research Manager, Dr Johanna Kohler
Over the next few days, DoE received multiple reports from SCUBA divers indicating that the shark’s health was rapidly declining. “While the shark was breathing, she was hardly able to swim, and her body was bent, a sign of pain in the animal, explains Dr. Kohler. “It was clear she was suffering. I can imagine she was in agony from this type of injury. This is why we decided to euthanize her. It’s very sad but it was the right thing to do.” A dive team from the DoE Enforcement Unit recovered the wounded young shark on 14th May.
The nurse shark will be examined by Dr Kohler as part of DoE’s standard protocol for deceased sharks, a protected and threated species in the Cayman Islands. This was the 3rd dead shark in 2026, following the deaths of a juvenile Caribbean reef shark (24th January 2026 in Cayman Brac) and a young-of-year blacktip shark (26th January 2026 Grand Cayman). Unfortunately, this sad event was followed by 2 more dead sharks, a nurse shark (2nd May, Cayman Brac, filleted) and Cuban dogfish (24th May Cayman Brac).
Sharks are Part 1 protected species under the National Conservation Act (2013) and a group of threatened species (under the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species). While sharks are still part of Cayman’s waters, sharks had drastic population declines worldwide. The wider Caribbean has one of the lowest numbers of sharks compared to other oceans. Low numbers of sharks, a important marine predator and key player for the balance in our ocean, makes the marine environment in our region less resilient and more vulnerable to additional stressors such as (over)fishing, pollution, climate change, mangrove removals, coral diseases, algae overgrowth and coastal degradation due to development. The protection of sharks in Cayman aims to prevent further decline because in some regions certain shark species (e.g. the Caribbean reef shark) are already locally extinct. Every individual shark encounter is special because it represents an interaction with a highly threatened species in our oceans.
The public necropsy of the deceased female nurse shark will take place at the Ritz’ Ambassadors of the Environment on 14th July 2026 from 10:30am-12pm.
Please follow DOE social media channels to receive updates in case the date/time changes.
Learn more about Cayman’s sharks: https://doe.ky/marine/sharks/