This is the shocking moment a man was seen pulling a shark from the waters along a Fire Island beach after a string of recent attacks have shaken summer swimmers in the area.
In the clip, a man can be seen grappling with a large grey tail as the surf pounds down on top of him and onlookers cry ‘holy s***’ in Long Island, New York.
The animal’s tail thrashed out of the man’s grip and the beast started to swim off, but he quickly scurried after it and can be seen pulling a fishing-line in by hand.
A wave then crashed down on the fish, sending it careening back towards the beach, and the man peddled away while maintaining his pull on the fishing line.
The woman who witnessed the incident, Emily Murray, told the New York Post that the man had been fishing when the shark hooked itself on his line.
‘He had been fishing and caught the shark by accident,’ Murray said, ‘He was attempting to unhook it and cut it free.’
She said the shark was eventually unhooked and released back into the water.
The incident was filmed on Sunday at Smith Point Beach, near where two shark attacks took place just last month.
Man and monster seem to struggle, then the shark briefly launched itself from the crashing waves with its mouth agape.
‘Holy s***,’ a shocked passerby cried again.
The shark is then washed into the shallows, and as the water retreats the man gets a grip around its tail and drags it thrashing ashore.
The clip concluded with the man holding a grip on the shark’s tail and calling out for a woman – Mary – to grab his bolt cutters.
A photo taken shortly after shows the man who caught the shark and another still handling the giant fish in the surf.
On social media many identified the shark as being a sand shark, which are considered largely non-dangerous.
Some questioned why the beachgoers were bothering the creature, with one user writing ‘Leave the poor shark alone. The shark was in his natural habitat. We humans are MONSTERS!!!!’
Others defended the fisherman, accurately noting it appeared he was actually trying to help the shark by freeing it from his fishing line.
‘I’m guessing by the bolt cutters in the first picture they’re actually trying to remove a fishing hook, although the video would make it appear their intentions are malicious,’ a user wrote.
The clip comes as an unusually high number of shark attacks have struck Long Island, with as many as four attacks occurring in July alone.
Two of those took place on Smith Point where the clip was filmed on Sunday.
On July 3 a lifeguard was attacked by a five-foot tiger shark during a training exercise there. He was left with bite wounds on his chest and hand before fighting off the beast.
Then on July 13, a 41-year-old surfer was bitten by a four-foot tiger shark and left with a large bite wound in his leg.
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