Rescuing Sharks at the Beach

Sharks

Sharks are considered to be dangerous creatures, and they’re a popular focus of hit movies for this reason. The expected reaction to seeing a shark when you’re out swimming is to get away from the creature as fast as you can, but not everyone does so. Off the coast of Cape Henlopen State Park Beach in Delaware, a swimmer was seen saving a shark, removing a hook from its mouth so it would be free.

Contents

Sharks Shark Attacks

He was caught on video footage shared by local resident Rachael Foster, and it’s since racked up over 200,000 views across Facebook and TikTok. According to Foster, there were around 20 people watching the scene, and most of them were yelling and shouting rather than getting closer to the shark.

Saving the shark was a two-person job. The man in the video didn’t originally catch the shark – that was his friend. However, the man then went in to open the shark’s mouth and remove the hook. Amazingly, nobody was hurt, and the shark was let go. In the state of Delaware, sand tiger and sandbar sharks have to be released after capture, and park rangers were around during the incident.

Shark Attacks

It’s not the first incident involving humans and sharks in Cape Henlopen State Park, as a 12-year-old boy ended up in hospital after being bitten by what was thought to be a sand shark. This caused a temporary shutdown of all surfing and swimming activities in the park.

Shark attacks are rare however, and most visits to places like Cape Henlopen State Park Beach are trouble-free. Last year, just 41 unprovoked shark attacks were confirmed in the US by the Florida Museum of Natural History – this is 64% of the global total, so there are far fewer than even 100 shark attacks across the world each year. At least we know that sharks exist. There are other creatures who may inhabit the water that nobody has managed to rescue yet, and they make sharks look like teddy bears in comparison. Have you seen anyone rescue a dangerous animal like the man in this video? If you have, let us know!