Marine Life Bull shark bites spearfisherman - Key West, Florida

[DandyDon]

Man was taking speared fish back to boat when shark struck off Key West, police say

His friend said it was an 8-foot bull shark.

ca.news.yahoo.com

The man bitten by a shark while spearfishing off Key West Monday had just speared a fish and was taking it back to the boat when he was struck, according to a Monroe County Sheriff’s Office incident report.

Jose Angel Abreu Hernandez, 37, from Opa-locka, was swimming on Toppino Reef — a popular snorkeling and shallow scuba diving site located about five miles off Key West — around 3:40 p.m. when the bloody encounter happened, according to the report.

As he was swimming to the 25-foot Mako center console, the approximately 8-foot bull shark bit Abreu Hernandez twice in the lower left leg, his friend, David Cruz Siles, who was on the boat, told deputies.

The shark tried to bite Abreu Hernandez’s torso, but only ripped into the rash guard shirt he was wearing, the report states.

Siles brought his friend aboard the boat and rushed him to shore at the Stock Island Lobster Company on Maloney Avenue.

Monroe County Fire Rescue paramedics flew him to a Miami-Dade County hospital for treatment. His condition as of Tuesday was not immediately known.

The Miami Herald was unable to contact Siles or Abreu Hernandez.

 

[johndiver999]

"Sharks are only interested in fish, they do not eat humans." I know I read that somewhere; sure wish sharks could read.

 

[Knockneed Man]

"Sharks are only interested in fish, they do not eat humans." I know I read that somewhere; sure wish sharks could read”

While that statement is true, sharks are also up for fighting another animal over a free meal. And they don’t wear boxing gloves.

 

[Scared Silly]

"Sharks are only interested in fish, they do not eat humans." I know I read that somewhere; sure wish sharks could read.

Sharks can read. But they can also bite.

 

[Joneill]

"Sharks are only interested in fish, they do not eat humans." I know I read that somewhere; sure wish sharks could read.

Well… what does one expect? Swimming around with a bleeding fish when sharks are nearby is just asking for trouble. Sharks will do what sharks will do when attracted to food! The spear fisher was just in the way or got mistaken as the food source.

 

[Steelyeyes]

"Sharks are only interested in fish, they do not eat humans." I know I read that somewhere; sure wish sharks could read.

Chumming them in with a bloody fish is not the safest plan. I was on a dive in Jupiter. Half of the boat was spear fisherman. One younger man chose, for whatever reason, to take the first dive's catch back down on the second dive. This was after we changed dive sites after the first boat on that site reported a tiger shark there. He had collected two more fish and put them on his metal hoop mounted (yeah, he really did this) to his weight belt.

A mean ol bull shark snatched all of his fish and the metal hoop and luckily not the weight belt. Not a scratch on the guy but that should be a lesson. Sharks are animals. They have intelligence but I'm pretty sure they are self centered when it comes to food and they fight amongst themselves and even cause injuries in the process.

I've been in the water with bull sharks lots of times. Every time so far they swim up, check us out, usually from behind if they can, and swim off. I guess they don't eat cameras.

I used to hunt lion fish when I lived in Bonaire. For some reason (locals overfishing everything, killing everything they land even if they're not going to eat it) there are few sharks there. 400 dives, two reef sharks, a few nurse sharks, and one greater hammerhead shark were seen. So no sharks showed up to snatch my zookeeper (mounted with bungees just in case). The one reef shark circled me with no aggressive posture and left. I had many more problems with large green morays.

 

[aknavy]

The bullsharks have been a bit aggressive up here in NW gulf coast this year while spearfishing. It's gotten to the point that we take a Sharkshield on nearly every dive. This weekend, one diver was followed all the way to the surface by three bull sharks and had to poke them off with the speargun. And they seem to be following the boat if we only move less than mile between dives. Or we're just getting lucky and seeing similar groups of sharks on different spots.

 

[Mr_D]

I'm of the opinion that when spearfishing the human becomes the chum bag, was never my thing for that reason.