Although there are many things that we may fear, one of the most common things is a fear of sharks. It keeps many people out of the water and even if you do get in the ocean, you are likely looking around and wondering if there is a dorsal fin swimming nearby. You can blame it on the movie Jaws or perhaps you could blame it on the media, that seems to talk an awful lot about shark attacks. Regardless of why you are afraid of sharks, however, it’s a real fear.
For diver Josh Eccles, being around sharks is almost a daily occurrence. He’s a resident of Florida, and he was swimming in the warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean. There is no doubt that he saw sea creatures on an ongoing basis but on this particular day, there was a lemon shark that was hovering nearby. He was getting fairly close to Josh and cameras captured something that was most unexpected.
Josh realized something was not right. The shark was aggressively bumping his body and he couldn’t figure out why. It was then that he took a closer look.
When he looked at the shark’s belly, he saw that there was something wrong. Josh took a deep breath and decided that he would take a chance.
There was a large hook hanging out of the belly of the shark. The odd behavior that this lemon shark was showing was actually a cry for help. It wasn’t trying to harm him, it just thought that perhaps Josh could be of assistance.
Lemon sharks are powerful and they can be up to 11 feet in length. It is rare that they will threaten humans but like any animal, they can be unpredictable.
Josh swam closer to the belly of the shark and did something that he probably never thought you would do. It certainly was a brave maneuver to help out an animal in need.
Lemon sharks tend to stay in stub tropical waters that are shallow and they may even enter some nearby rivers. This lemon shark was off the coast of Florida.
Not only was Josh able to remove the hook from the shark, the shark even said “thank you”. It is that move that really has the video going viral.
You can watch the incredible footage in this video: