"Anytime I see, you know, a shark or any animal in distress, I'm gonna help them,” diver Jeff Joel said
- Diver Jeff Joel said he was bitten on the arm by a lemon shark while diving off the coast of Florida
- He said that he had tried to free the shark from a fishing net that was stuck on its head when it got aggressive
- He received 40 stitches and is currently at home recovering, though he said he would do it again to help a marine creature in need
A man trying to do a good deed for a shark ended up on the wrong end of its jaws.
Diver Jeff Joel told Good Morning America (GMA) and the Today show that he had been diving off the coast of Florida when he came upon a group of lemon sharks — and one in particular with a fishing net stuck on its head.
He could be seen in a video obtained by the outlets grabbing onto the shark and attempting to pull the fishing net away from the shark’s head — a task Joel said was far easier said than done.
"I was just about to get it unhooked, and she got spooked and started flailing around, thrashing,” he recalled to GMA. “She went upside down, and then she kind of rolled my way and got me on the arm. It was just a freak thing."
Joel also told
Today, "I got her undone and she was free but in the process she got spooked and she started thrashing around."
In the video, the newly freed shark could be seen immediately swimming away with the rest of its group away from the divers. Joel was bitten on his right arm and had to receive 40 stitches at the hospital. He was treated by first responders and now has a bandage on his right arm.
Joel has since left the hospital and is recovering at home. Despite all this happening, the diver said he would do it all again to help out a sea creature in need.
"Anytime I see, you know, a shark or any animal in distress, I'm gonna help them,” he told
GMA.
“She was trapped. Like any wild animal would be scared if they're trapped. They don't know what's going to happen, so I went to help her," he added.
Joel took part in a ceremony at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach on Wednesday, July 23 for shark bite victims, where he was commended for his deeds in saving a shark.
“Here’s for you not only getting bitten by a shark but you saved a shark,” one of the doctors could be seen telling Joel on the podium, as the audience laughed.
According to the
Florida Museum of Natural History, there were 28 cases of unprovoked shark bites in the U.S. last year, which is when a person is bitten “in the shark’s natural habitat with no human provocation of the shark.” Florida in particular reported half the cases with 14 in total.
The Sunshine State in particular has “long topped global charts for the number of shark bites,” according to the Florida Museum of Natural History. Other states that reported unprovoked shark bites included Hawaii and Texas.
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