Fisherman survives shark attack off the Florida Keys: "I tried to hold the mouth"
FLORIDA KEYS – A spearfisherman was airlifted to a nearby hospital after he was reportedly bitten on the leg by a shark in the Florida Keys, authorities said.
The incident happened at 3:40 p.m. on Monday while Jose Angel Abreu Hernandez, 37, from Opa-locka, was spearfishing with a friend on a reef off the coast of Key West.
Hernandez, who was swimming on Toppino Reef, had just speared a fish and was taking it back to the boat when the shark struck, according to a Monroe County Sheriff's Office incident report.
Witnesses said it was an 8-foot bull shark.
The shark bit Abreu Hernandez twice in the lower left leg, said friend David Cruz Siles, who was on the boat.
"I tried to hold the mouth all the time, all the time," said Abreu Hernandez. The shark tried to bite him in the chest as well, he said.
Abreu Hernandez said his friend helped him fight off the shark, pulled him aboard the boat and rushed him to shore at the Stock Island Lobster Company on Maloney Avenue, according to our partners at The Miami Herald.
From there, Abreu Hernandez was airlifted by Monroe County's Trauma Star helicopter to Jackson South Medical Center.
