A recent video out of Florida shows the terrifying moment when a shark attacked an angler in Everglades National Park. According to the Instagram caption, the man was rinsing his hand in murky waters when the shark breached the surface and latched on. It then yanked him overboard while his fellow fisherman screamed and scrambled to pull him back on deck. The shark-bitten fisherman was later airlifted to a local hospital by Miami-Dade Fire Rescue. Watch the video for yourself below.
The footage was re-shared on Instagram by the @thequalifiedcaptain on June 24. “After releasing a snook elarjan washed his hands in the water and was immediately bit by a large [lemon] shark,” the caption reads. “The sharks are no joke in the Everglades and the warnings about keeping your hands out of the water are not an exaggeration.”
The original post was shared by Boca-Grande tarpon guide Micheal Russo, who was on board the skiff when the attack occurred, the Daily Mail reports. Russo’s original post has since been deleted. But other guides are circulating his video as a warning to anyone who fishes in the Everglades.
“I could show you a dozen places where there are packs of these lemon sharks lurking below,” Captain Mike Venezia, a tarpon, bonefish, and shark guide based out of Islamorada, Florida told the Daily Mail. “[They’re] anywhere from the size of the one in this video to 250lbs plus.”
In his post, Russo said there was “no blood or chum in the water” when the unprovoked attack occurred. “Please take this as a lesson and keep your hands out of the water,” he wrote. “This could have been prevented.”
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Lemon sharks are formidable predators that live in coral keys and mangrove swamps along the Atlantic Coast and in parts of the Pacific Ocean. Adults commonly reach sizes of 10 feet or more. According to Oceana.org, they can weigh up to 550 pounds and live to 30-years-old. The International Game Fish Association all-tackle world record lemon shark was caught off the coast of North Carolina in 1988. It weighed 405 pounds.
