A fisherman in Florida was attacked in shark-infested waters after he fell in during a visit to the Bahamas last month. He suffered a wound that was just inches away from an artery, according to the New York Post.
Marlin Wakeman, 24, was spending time at the Flying Fish Marina in Long Island on April 26 when he attempted to leap to the docked boat he was working on at the time. He said he had “always kind of thought about” the possibility of falling into the water.
Wakeman mentioned that he and his friends “were talking about like, man, if you fell in here, like, you are done. You’re not even going to have a second to really react.”
“When I ended up in the water, I pretty much knew what was going to happen,” the fisherman said. “And when he bit me, I knew what was going on. There wasn’t a second of doubt in my mind.”
NBC News reported that Wakeman said there were always sharks swarming the area due to the amount of fish carcasses dumped into the water by fishermen. He went on to mention that the area has such a dense population of Caribbean Reef Sharks that someone “can walk on their heads almost.”
After Wakeman fell into the waters, one shark immediately bit him on the knee, and a second one bit him on the shoulder.
“When I ended up in the water, I pretty much knew what was going to happen,” the fisherman said. “And when he bit me, I knew what was going on. There wasn’t a second of doubt in my mind.”
Wakeman said the first shark pulled him under before eventually letting go. He said he was lucky that the shark “didn’t head shake or hold on for a while.”
After the shark let go, he was able to make his way to the surface. But it did not take long for the second shark to jump in, biting him on the shoulder. Wakeman said that the initial bite did not hurt, saying it felt more like a “punch.”
Despite the severity of his injuries, Wakeman was able to pull himself into the boat.
“I had so much adrenaline going through my body that it was like a fight or flight kind of thing,” he said.
“I got back into the boat and kind of assessed what happened and looked at my leg. It wasn’t really bleeding yet. It was kind of, you know, all mangled.”
After assessing his wounds, Wakeman screamed for help. His captain hurried to him, applied a tourniquet, and elevated his leg. He said the pain did not kick in until they started pushing him in a wheelbarrow to a van to get him to a clinic, according to reports.
“It was bleeding a lot at that point and adrenaline sort of wearing off a little bit and then we got into the van,” he said.
“And when I was in the van, they took gauze. And I remember my captain, he looked at me and he was like, ‘Hey, man, this is gonna hurt really bad.’ And I was like, ‘You know, whatever.'”
After those words, Wakeman said he blacked out from the pain.
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