Man Survives After Nurse Shark Attack

A group of divers went diving off the Florida coast. These people weren’t newbies, knowing exactly how to behave when under the water. Friends checked their equipment and jumped out of the boat. First, it all went as usual, but then something went wrong. As later told by Ervin Maccarty, whose specialty was getting groupers out of holes, the captain of the boat asked him to go in and get the grouper. He jumped in and went straight to the hole in about ten feet water.

As soon as he got down there, the shark came out of another hole and bit him. The man struggled to get back to the boat. It knocked the breath out of Ervin, so he had to get up for air but I felt the shark biting and trying to tear him open.

It wouldn’t let go so Ervin had to hold it tight with both hands so it wouldn’t rip him open and had to get up for air with the shark pulling poor man down. He thought he would drown.

Finally, he got up and saw the boat had floated away and everyone yelling that the shark had bitten him. No one knew it was still there. Ervin had to get to the boat with no hands to swim with. It was a struggle and wore him out.

The team could see him holding his stomach with both hands, but it took them a few minutes to realize what was going on. In just seconds after seeing the shark, they already knew what to do. Someone pulled out a knife to ditch shark away.

But Ervin was too scared to understand what was going on there. He screamed for them to stop and begged to never cut him or let him die of bleeding.

That might sound awful but nobody listened to him. Guys just did their job and saved their friend’s life. Looking at those bleeding bite marks, Ervin could not believe it all was over. Now he feels grateful and a little bit ashamed of his behavior. But do not forget the guy was totally shocked. Who knows how would any of us behaved under similar circumstances.

Although this shark seemed too small to cause real harm to humans, they are too dangerous to stay near. Nurse sharks are a bottom dwelling species of shark that humans often don’t give a second thought. The nurse shark won’t hesitate to give a defensive bite though and at as long as 14 feet they can leave a significant wound behind.

They do not just bite people, but they suck into skin trying to pull away a bigger piece of flesh. Attacks upon humans by nurse sharks are particularly unlikely; although in the past a handful of unprovoked attacks have been noted. In many cases, these unprovoked attacks have elements that could explain the attack as being self-defense since often they take place at diving sites where sharks may see foreign invaders as a threat.