Tag: shark encounter

Mako shark rips fin off diver, who first thought, ‘I don’t have a leg’

Chad Patti, spearfishing with two friends, was waiting for the boat to pick him up when a mako shark blindsided him from the rear.

Chad Patti, spearfishing with two friends in the Gulf of Mexico, was waiting for the boat to pick him up when a mako shark blindsided him from the rear.

The shark tore the fin off his right foot and swam away, as video footage he  captured of the encounter shows. ViralHog posted his video Sunday, though it occurred in January.

“Luckily, he only took my fin and not my life,” Patti wrote on social media soon after the incident. “I’m very fortunate.”

Patti told WKRG soon after the incident that the first scream in the video was “the terror of I don’t know what’s going on exactly.” He added, “The first thing that went through my mind is I don’t have a leg. I felt a lot of pressure on my right leg from where I think her pec fin hit my leg…It was intense.”

Josh Loucks and Nathan Lancaster were on the boat about 30 feet away.

“There was a huge sense of relief once we were all back in the boat with our arms and legs,” Loucks, who had jumped in to assist Patti, told WKRG.

Also on FTW Outdoors: Ice fisherman spears 177-pound sturgeon 

They were about 70 miles offshore of Pensacola.

Patti told ViralHog, “It hit me from behind at a good angle from my right rear. I would’ve never seen her coming even if I was looking down. When she hit me I did a flip, she knocked the speargun out of my hands, and partially flooded my mask.”

The heart-racing encounter did not deter the divers from going back into the water, however. But they did admit they dive closer together and keep a closer eye on one another.

Photo courtesy of ViralHog.

Surfer Mark Healey fends off shark while freediving

The accompanying video clip shows a large shark approaching Mark Healey, who ends the encounter with a firm jab to the shark’s snout.

Mark Healey makes a living as a big-wave surfer who spends most of the year chasing enormous swells around the world. But when the athlete isn’t riding waves, he often seeks solitude and adventure beneath the surface, freediving with a speargun, hunting fish for the dinner table.

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I’ve found that it’s worthwhile to make every effort (within reason) to not let sharks take a fish you’ve speared. They’re fast learners and when they are rewarded for a behavior they usually double down on it. That’s why they’ve been around for eons. Sometimes it’s unavoidable and the sharks beat you to your fish. This video is an example of how they act after being “rewarded”. I lost a fish to about five sharks earlier in the dive. Once that happens they have way less hesitation and they’ll shadow you all day. Even follow the boat if you switch spots sometimes. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t feel in danger at all here, but if I ended up shooting that Wahoo, you know this shark would have been all over it. Another good reason to avoid having the sharks take your fish (besides losing your food) is that you don’t want them to associate divers with food. It might not be a problem for you that day, but it may end up being a problem for the unwitting diver that that wild animal encounters next time.

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This sometimes puts Healey in close proximity to sharks looking for an easy meal.

The accompanying video clip, posted to Instagram on Sunday, shows a large Galapagos shark approaching Healey, who ends the encounter with a firm jab to the shark’s snout with his spear tip.

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“I’ve found that it’s worthwhile to make every effort (within reason) to not let sharks take a fish you’ve speared,” Healey wrote. “They’re fast learners and when they are rewarded for a behavior they usually double down on it.

“Sometimes it’s unavoidable and the sharks beat you to your fish. This video is an example of how they act after being ‘rewarded.’

Healey told For The Win Outdoors that he was diving off French Polynesia when the encounter occurred. He had recently lost a fish to several sharks that had been close by, and Healey had been eyeing a wahoo (also seen in the video clip) when the Galapagos shark approached.

“There’s no shortage of sharks down there,” Healey said. “This shark was shadowing me to see if it could get another easy meal. It doesn’t have an aggressive posture towards me, but they don’t mind a bit of physical contact once they’re fired up.

“It had a competitive feeding situation when it vied with other sharks earlier in the day to eat my fish. It’s kind of like throwing a French fry to seagulls. Once they’ve seen it they’re not afraid to get close to you because they’re more concerned about beating the other seagulls to the next possible French fry.”

Healey, 38, who lives in Hawaii, said encounters like this are not uncommon in locations where sharks are plentiful, and he generally tries to exit the water as quickly as possible after securing his catch.

“You just have to read the scenario,” he said.