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Florida East Coast Spearfishing Let's talk here about spearing on Florida's Atlantic coast. Reports and other issues about this region belong here.

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Old 08-02-2009, 03:29 PM   #16
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Re: Bull Shark attacked us.... News gets details wrong

What a story, glad everyone is ok...
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Old 08-02-2009, 03:55 PM   #17
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Re: Bull Shark attacked us.... News gets details wrong

damn matt cj told me about it i hope the kid makes a fast recovery
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Old 08-02-2009, 05:14 PM   #18
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Re: Bull Shark attacked us.... News gets details wrong

Wow Matt that is insane!! I am glad he will be OK and am glad you were there to coordinate rescue efforts. You have been going over there your whole life, have you ever seen anything like this?
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Old 08-02-2009, 06:11 PM   #19
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Re: Bull Shark attacked us.... News gets details wrong

All my best wishes I was diving with my 13 years old son in the abacos in april and saw no sharks , I thought people were overworried about those, now I learned that you never should stop worrying.
Being myself a general and trauma surgeon I thing everybody did a great job and the kid has been awsome also because he felt safe with his family around in the right way.
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Old 08-02-2009, 07:14 PM   #20
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Re: Bull Shark attacked us.... News gets details wrong

Excellent job coordinating rescue efforts and getting him back to WPB. Swift recovery!!
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Old 08-02-2009, 07:38 PM   #21
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Re: Bull Shark attacked us.... News gets details wrong

Wow, what a story. Best wishes and hope he makes a full recovery.
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Old 08-02-2009, 07:43 PM   #22
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Re: Bull Shark attacked us.... News gets details wrong

Glad to hear he's ok! This aint the first story I've heard of the sharks at Spanish....Props to everybody's quick thinking! Good luck at JHS! (i wuz class of 04)
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Old 08-02-2009, 09:09 PM   #23
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Re: Bull Shark attacked us.... News gets details wrong

WOW. Glad he is going to make a full recovery. Just as a note, which you may have already done or have been contacted to do, but you should report this incident to the International Shark Attack File http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks...stionintro.htm A detailed story of that magnitude is good to have on record.

And way to go on the first aid applied to save his life!
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Old 08-02-2009, 09:16 PM   #24
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Re: Bull Shark attacked us.... News gets details wrong

Glad everything turned out ok... Dr. Shedd is an amazing physician, he used to be our medical director for EVAC here in Daytona, infact, we still use The "Shedd Pack" on the trucks... Hope everything heals up nicely and with full mobility for the young man
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Old 08-02-2009, 10:38 PM   #25
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Re: Bull Shark attacked us.... News gets details wrong

John "ReefThief" and Bullit7 this is exactly how fast it happens. John with some of the bigger sharks I have had run ins with, 500lbs plus, one bite would be fatal. You have proven that you are good with sharks and very good at defending yourself from them when they are aggressive and in many cases large. My point is that eventually you will get hit and the consequences are going to be severe. Several times this summer now i have had run ins with aggressive bull sharks on shallow dives I normally never see them in like Hog Heaven and Tennaco Towers. Another incident was with a very large hammerhead while diving the outfall in Hillsborough with an extraordinary diver, Joe Shook. You can't ever let your guard down. This isn't a "sharky" area relatively speaking or by my standards. I still always try to operate as I explained before. Anyway, I look forward to diving with you and with Lee again. I may move my boat to a marina soon and if i do it will be easy for a fast early am or late eve deployment. In this case i'm glad to hear everyone was trained and acted accordingly. If they had not this may have been a different story...
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Old 08-03-2009, 06:29 AM   #26
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Re: Bull Shark attacked us.... News gets details wrong

Rob,

In the 30 years I have been going to the Abacos and freediving/ spearing, I have never personally had an aggressive shark like this. I have seen small reef sharks and blacktips come in with the aggressive swimming posture, but they were all about the fish and we always just bail in that situation. That has happened maybe 10 times or so... we never felt we were in danger. I have seen literally hundreds of sharks in the Bahamas. They are usually commming in cautiously and checking the scene from the periphery. They don't up at the divers usually they circle where the fish was origenally shot or, if the fish is wounded, circle that area. We have even chased off these casually swimming reef sharks. I am not sure I will be doing that anymore though. Still, we usually just bail when a shark comes in, because if you spear a fish and a shark is close, he can go from casual swimming to "feed mode" in a blink. So we just move on. Happens all the time over there. Don't see many bull sharks though.

thanks for the Kudo's on our responce to Derek's injuries. Luckily, they weren't life threatening since no arteries were hit, but I didn't assess that at the time and just went for max control of blood loss. As it turns out, we didnt' have to go that far, but better safe than sorry. I should note that you have to be careful with tournakits.... they will result in tissue damage if left on too long and can damage nerves. Max time for a tournakit is 2 hours. Derek's was on for about 15 minutes before we loosened it.

I have to tell you guys, we were all amazed at Derek's calmness. That kid could work in trauma or flight control tower. You can imagine also how this must have been for his Dad. Trying to get there and seeing it happen. Fending off the shark while holding his kid in one hand. Holding pressure on his son's calf for the boat rides. Man, I can see where Derek gets his poise from.

We had a wave of relief come over us when we were at Dr. Shedds and he told us Derek was stable and going to be ok. We all got choked up.

Biggest thing now is making sure no infection. So far so good. If no infection they may be able to fully close the wound.

Still working on pics... no time.. do I have to load them to photobucket or something?

Matt
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Old 08-03-2009, 08:34 AM   #27
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Re: Bull Shark attacked us.... News gets details wrong

Scary stuff. My younger brother and I were spearfishing off hopetown beach and were totally accosted by 3 reefies. They were right on top of me for awhile so I dropped my nassau I was carrying. Fish swam down sharks followed it and then turned right around and came back to me. These things chased me all the way back to the beach--I was swimming backwards, and I could see these 3 in my fin wake bumping my flippers. Worse shark experience I have had---that suck--hopefully he makes a full recovery, and will just have a cool ass scar to talk about for his whole life--better than any tattoo!
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Old 08-03-2009, 09:11 AM   #28
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Re: Bull Shark attacked us.... News gets details wrong

That is my worst fear. I am so glad he is going to recover. Your acts of perservance are quite heroic. God bless and god speed!
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Old 08-03-2009, 09:52 AM   #29
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Re: Bull Shark attacked us.... News gets details wrong

Wow. Sounds like you guys did a great job keeping your cool and glad Derek is going to be OK.
I am not comfortable freediving with sharks while spearfishing but you never know if they are there.
It sounds like it happened very fast and if the shark had wanted to it could have done a lot more damage.
From the description it seems the shark was "driving" off competition over getting the fish.
Interesting it didn't bite anyone else and let go as fast as it did. Very lucky it didn't get any major blood vessels or ligaments.
Hammerhead- Of course thats exactly how fast that happens, what are you thinking of?
How would a PH have helped Derek in that scenario? He would still have been bit. You could kill the shark after the fact but it sounds like they did the smart thing and got him soonest to help.
I have had very hairy scenarios solo deep diving of multiple aggressive Bulls interested more if driving me out than my catch.
Being able to face them down without a breathing constraint made it a completely different scenario. I still left the area but in a controlled manner. Bulls are the most territorial and unpredictable sharks. I've seen them light up without any of the typical posturing warning signs. More than you can keep in sight is time to get out. Being on your guard is best defense but won't help with the shark you don't see.
Bottom line it is always a risk, but I still worry more about the two legged idiot killing me on the surface.
Sounds like you guys really handled it well.
Take care. John
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Old 08-03-2009, 12:19 PM   #30
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Re: Bull Shark attacked us.... News gets details wrong

wow man, that is one hell of a story!! glad to hear it doesn't have a worse ending. jeebus.
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