A 16-year-old boy who caught a 5-foot great white shark was bitten in the leg as he lifted it up by the tail to get a photo and to release it overboard.
The incident occurred in Australia on Sunday afternoon as Michael Ness fished with his two sons and daughter off Adelaide’s West Beach.
Son Nathan caught the shark, and somehow the family managed to get the shark onto the boat to remove the hook.
“I grabbed a pair of pliers, ripped the hook out of it,” Michael Ness told Australian Broadcasting Company. “Then he [Nathan] picked it up to throw it back into the water and take a picture of it, and as he picked it up, it swung around and grabbed hold.
“I reached down then and opened its mouth and the shark let go, and he hauled it up and threw it back in the water.”
The bite left two “big gashes” that required stitches.
“It happened very quickly because from biting his leg to getting it off was only a few seconds,” Michael Ness told 9 News.
As Michael Ness raced the boat back to the West Beach ramp, Nathan called emergency services, which met them at the dock. He was briefly treated at the scene then taken to Royal Adelaide Hospital.
The unfortunate incident hasn’t dampened Nathan’s desire to go fishing again, however.
“He even said as he was getting into the ambulance, ‘Can we go out tomorrow?’” Michael Ness told 9 News.
