Monday, March 10, 2025

Got 1 min? Tourist survives crocodile attack in Sisal, Yucatán

A tourist from México state was attacked by a crocodile while swimming in a watering hole near the Pueblo Mágico of Sisal on the Yucatán coast. 

A 51-year-old man identified as Joel P. had been enjoying a day of eco-tourism on Monday when he decided to cool off by taking a swim at the Sisal swamp. As he was swimming, a more than 2-meter-long crocodile bit down on his right leg and tried to pull him deeper into the lagoon. 

Joel Sisal crocodile
Photos uploaded to social media showed Joel being treated by paramedics. (Luis Gabriel Velásquez)

Fortunately, his friends quickly jumped in to save him, reportedly fighting the crocodile off with makeshift weapons including a length of rope. Joel was then transported to a hospital in Mérida, the state capital, by emergency services. His condition is currently stable and his injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.

Photos on social media show paramedics treating Joel at the scene of the attack.

While many sites in the Yucatán Peninsula display crocodile warnings, there does not appear to be any such warning at the area where Joel was swimming, according to reports from newspaper La Jornada Maya. 

While rare, crocodile attacks do sometimes occur in Mexico. In 2021, an attack on a British tourist at a Puerto Escondido tourist spot made global headlines. 

Paulino Ponce Campos, a biologist and member of the National Group of Crocodile Experts in Mexico, told news outlet Infobae that there have been around 400 recorded attacks on humans in the last 64 years, of which only 18% have been fatal.

With reports from La Jornada Maya and Infobae

3 COMMENTS

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
In a video announcing the appointment of Edgar Amador Zamora, President Sheinbaum described the departing finance minister (L) Rogelio Ramírez de la O as Mexico's "best economist."

Sheinbaum appoints Amador as finance minister after Ramírez steps down

1
Former Bank of Mexico adviser Edgar Amador will be Mexico's new finance minister, though Rogelio Ramírez de la O will continue to advise the president on international affairs.
Dusty, abandoned backpacks and shoes at a secret crematorium in Jalisco

Search collective calls on authorities to investigate a grisly find in Jalisco

1
Volunteer searchers have uncovered three clandestine crematoriums in Jalisco, containing burnt remains, a list of apparent missing persons and 200 shoes.
Each year, large quantities of sargassum contaminate Mexico's southeastern beaches.

UNAM researchers develop drywall from sargassum

1
UNAM researchers have invented a way to repurpose the seaweed — 23 to 25 million tonnes of which could wash ashore in Mexico this year — as the principal component for drywall.