A brave group of beachgoers ended up saving the life of a massive shark by wading into the shallows and dragging it out to sea when it beached itself.
Here's a video of their daring rescue:
Of course, we should probably preface this by saying that it’s not something you should try to replicate.
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After all, sharks have very large teeth and are fairly massive in general, so they’re liable to take a bite out of you even if you are trying to help.
That presumably counts double if they’re distressed and in fear for their life after having become stranded on a beach.
Still, that doesn’t mean that these people aren’t heroes for helping out the creature, which might have died had they not intervened.
The whole thing was captured on video, and shows the four brave folks heading into the shallows at Pensacola Beach in Florida to come to the aid of the stricken mako shark.
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One of the women who saw the episode unfold said: “After a few seconds of seeing it struggle to get back in the water, my husband took charge to try to help it.”
Taking charge, in this case, means grabbing some others and trying to hoist a 600lb shark back into deeper water.
Obviously, the shark wasn’t happy.
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During the rescue it could be seen writhing around and showing off some pretty impressive teeth, as well as thrashing around its huge powerful tail.
“Look at them freakin' teeth!” one woman could be heard to say off-camera.
That about sums it up, yeah.
Eventually, the men started to make some headway and managed to get the shark back out and pointing in the right direction again.
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At this point, three of the men left the scene and left just one person in there continuing to try to get the shark to return to its natural habitat.
One woman pleads with him to stay out of the water as it had become ‘too dangerous’.
However, the man expertly positioned the shark and managed to get it out to sea, as onlookers from the beach cheer the rescuers for their brave efforts.
According to a witness, the shark became stuck after approaching the sand ‘too fast’.
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Josh Fey, one of the rescuers in the video, reportedly told WKRG: “We were sitting on the beach just having a good time and my buddy just said, 'Look out in the water there, man'.
“I see that fin and I was like, yeah, it was two or three sandbars away from us.
“Eventually it just turned to the left and started coming directly beeline toward the shoreline, and I said, ‘That's a big shark coming in’.
“And we thought it was chasing some bait or whatnot, but it came all the way to shoreline and beached itself.”
Mako sharks - like most sharks - aren’t exactly known to enjoy eating or attacking humans, but they definitely have in the past.
They’re up there with the most dangerous sharks going, having attacked humans 10 times, once fatally.
They’ve got a particularly impressive bite, but even more than that they’re supremely fast, often chucking their entire body out of the water, and can grow up to 13-feet in length.
Again, you shouldn’t get into the water with one of them if you can avoid it, but that’s not to diminish from the brave and kind actions of these folks at the Florida beach.
Tom Wood