Woman Escapes Shark By Punching It On The Nose - Off Fla. Coast, Dry Tortugas

- Lemon sharks can grow to 3.4 metres (11 ft) in length. They are often found in shallow subtropical waters... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon_shark
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- The Guardian, Feb. 18, 2022. Ed. 'Woman escapes shark by punching it on nose off Florida coast.' - Lemon shark ‘kept tugging and tugging, and I could feel its teeth in my ankle’ said Heather West, who was snorkeling off Dry Tortugas.

A woman punched a 6ft shark in the face until it let go of her foot, which it bit while she snorkeled off the Dry Tortugas, islands off the coast of Florida. Heather West, 42 and from Texas, told the Daily Mail the lemon shark “kept tugging and tugging, and I could feel its teeth in my ankle”. Lemon sharks can grow to 11ft and inhabit coastal waters, close to swimmers, surfers and divers. But they present little threat to humans.

According to the International Shark Attack File, at the Univ. of Fla., before West’s encounter there had been only 10 unprovoked attacks by lemon sharks, all in Fla. and the Caribbean, none fatal. “Caution is still warranted as they are a large predatory species,” the ISAF says. In any year, the US accounts for about half of unprovoked shark attacks worldwide. The vast majority are not fatal. Most bites are exploratory. Sharks eat seals, turtles and fish. Sustained attacks on humans resulting in fatalities, as in Sydney, Australia this week, are likely to be cases of mistaken identity.

In a recent book, Emperors of the Deep: Sharks, the Ocean’s Most Mysterious, Most Misunderstood and Most Important Guardians, George Burgess, a Univ. of Fla. professor and ISAF organiser, tells author William McKeever: “The major reason more attacks are in the U.S. is we’ve got a very large coastline … and of course lots of people. “And we are also a nation of some wealth and means, and so we can afford to spend time at the beach. And of course many areas of the country are heavy tourist areas.”

West lives in a van, traveling the US & updating an Instagram account. She told the Mail she was heading back to shore when the lemon shark bit her. “I was wearing flippers & my kick wasn’t doing much damage,” so I decided to lean forward & start punching it.“ I punched it in the face over & over again as hard as I possibly could, and after about 30 seconds it finally let go. For the next 2 minutes I was in complete shock & couldn’t swim, but by this point my friends had ran back in the water to help me.” Fortunately for West, 2 park rangers were nearby, setting traps for rats. They helped apply tourniquets to her leg & get her to the mainland for treatment...

- More, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/feb/18/woman-escapes-shark-by-punching-florida