Shark attack horror: Man bitten on holiday while ‘making friends’ with 'affectionate' fish
A MAN was airlifted to hospital after a diving trip in the Bahamas took a turn towards the horrific.
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The 51-year-old was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, where he is said to be in a stable condition. He was taking part in a six-day trip on the boat Shear Water to interact with tiger and hammerhead sharks when he was bitten off the coast of Bimini in the Bahamas, and was taken to hospital on the advice of the medical officer after the coast guard was called.
He had been bitten by a shark while fishing.
Petty Officer Jose Hernandez from the coast guard said: “It was reported to us that a passenger aboard the Shear Water was reeling in their line, he reached down to lift it out of the water when a shark came up and bit his arm”.
A video shows the man being winched out of the boat onto the helicopter with a bandaged left arm.
The trip the man was on was run by 65-year-old shark conservationist Jim Abernethy, who runs cage-free shark dives.
Abernethy’s Scuba Adventures advertises the opportunity for “up close and personal encounters” with sharks.
A self-proclaimed “passionate crusade” for sharks, his aim is to teach divers to “make friends with sharks using affection, rather than food”.
Shark numbers have plummeted by nearly 80 percent in the last 50 years, partly due to overfishing and being killed for their fins.
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However, Mr Abernethy has been criticised by the Bahamas Dive Association for not abiding by standard safety practices.
Mr Abernethy had to be airlifted from his boat himself in 2011 after being bitten by a shark.
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In 2008, Austrian attorney Markus Groh died from blood loss after being bitten on the leg by a shark on one of Mr Abernethy’s trips.
On average four people a year are killed by sharks, however last year there were 11 confirmed deaths from shark encounters.
It is estimated that around 100 million sharks are killed each year by human activity.