Brave scuba diver rescues hooked shark entangled on artificial Florida reef, wild video shows

This time it was the shark that wanted rescuing.

A courageous Florida scuba diver freed a shark with a big hook in its mouth that had develop into ensnared on a fishing line to a man-made reef, video of the daring rescue reveals.

Tazz Felde, a scuba teacher for Below Strain Divers, got here head to head with the struggling nurse shark off John Beasley Park on Okaloosa Island at Fort Walton Seaside.

“It was between 6 and seven ft,” he told FOX Weather. “It was a fairly large shark.”

Video reveals the shark writhing with a big metallic hook in its mouth because it tries to get away. Felde will be seen gingerly attempting to tug the hook from its jaws, however the distressed fish doesn’t wish to cooperate.

Felde then places his hand on prime of the shark’s head to carry it down as he tries to chop the road with pliers, the footage reveals.

The shark will be seen rolling over and nudging Felde.

All of a sudden, with a thrash of its tail proper within the digicam, the freed shark darts off into the blue — with Felde’s pliers in tow.

Felde stated one other diver reported the shark to his spouse, who works at an area snorkel store. He stated the diver and his son made a number of unsuccessful makes an attempt to free it from the construction.

He and a good friend made the short hundred-yard outswim to the situation final month to see if they may assist, he advised Fox Climate.

“The world that they described the place the shark was, it was there,” he added. “There have been lots of monofilaments strung all around the reef. The shark was proper on the underside, and you may see it could actually solely transfer its head just a bit.”

As soon as there, Felde was in a position to reduce the 120-pound check line’s metal chief connected to the hook within the shark’s mouth. 

Whereas usually innocent to people, nurse sharks have sturdy jaws crammed with 1000’s of tiny, serrated tooth they use to crush prey discovered on the ocean ground, according to National Geographic. Whereas they’re not recognized to assault swimmers, they are going to chew defensively if threatened.

The sharks can develop as much as 14 ft in size, with their giant, distinctive tails accounting for as much as 14 of their physique size. They’re discovered within the heat, shallow waters of the western Atlantic and japanese Pacific oceans.

Felde stated shedding his pliers was price it.

“I simply wished to make it possible for the factor was going to be free and dwell the remainder of his life completely satisfied,” he stated. “Simply watching it swim away was the reward.”