11 hours ago
Fed-up shark BITES Florida man who pulled predator from ocean and posed with it for photos
A Florida man who pulled a shark from the ocean received a nasty reward as the huge fish viciously attacked him while he posed for photos.
A viral video showed the heart-stopping moment a lemon shark, caught by a group of men, whipped its head around to take a bite out of its captor's leg.
Shawn Meuse and his friends captured the beast on his birthday fishing trip on Cayo Costa on Saturday.
The group of men pulled it onto the beach, illuminated by their head torches, before posing for pictures.
'Good job buddy,' a friend could be heard saying, just seconds before disaster struck.
As he held the shark's head up from the sand, and a friend picked up the beast's tail, it spun around to sink its teeth into Meuse's leg.
He screamed in pain as other members of the group started panicking.
'Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god,' one exclaimed.
The shark thrashed around in the incoming waves as the camera panned to Meuse, who was sat on the sand with his injured leg covered in blood.
'You don't know what a wild animal is going to do, you know? So that happens, we're in his territory during this,' Meuse told ABC News.
Emergency crews responded to the incident just before 11pm, the Boca Grande fire chief told the outlet. Meuse was treated at the scene before being airlifted to Gulf Coast Medical.
Users on social media slammed Meuse for catching the predator.
'Play stupid games... win stupid prizes,' one user commented.
'Should've put him back in water instead of trying to pose for a selfie... just saying,' another wrote.
'He's trying to take a pic like it's an alligator.'
'I mean... it's a shark... they bite. I'm just glad he found this out without losing his whole leg,' one said.
Meuse, however, said he was lucky to have escaped the incident without too much injury and was scheduled for surgery on his leg on Tuesday
Meuse admitted to ABC News that, while he was not the one to have caught the shark, he hadn't got a permit.
But he claimed he 'wasn't fishing, I just took it off the hook.'
Lemon sharks are a protected species in Florida, and only a handful of incidents resulting in non-fatal bites have been reported, according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Naturalist Rob Howell told the outlet: 'That shark wanted to get back to the water as quickly as possible. It was in pain and scared, and not a lot of people give these animals the respect they deserve, and I didn't see any respect in that video.'
Meuse, however, said he was lucky to have escaped the incident without too much injury and was scheduled for surgery on his leg on Tuesday.
'I'm unlucky or lucky at the same time? Because, you know, if it was a few inches one way, you know, I might not be here,' he continued.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is investigating the incident.
