A Hawaii fisherman is lucky to be alive after an extremely scary run-in with a tiger shark off the coast of O‘ahu, reports Yahoo.
The incident
Scott Haraguchi was fishing in his kayak less than two miles offshore from Kualoa Regional Park on the the windward side of O‘ahu at the time of the attack. Having just caught a fish, Haraguchi had not yet turned off his GoPro camera when something suddenly rammed into his craft.
“I heard a whooshing sound that sounded like a boat heading towards me without the motor,” Haraguchi later told KITV 4 News. “I looked up and I saw this big brown thing my brain thought it was a turtle but then I got slammed by it and realized that it was a tiger shark.”
The entire encounter, which was all caught on GoPro, lasted just seconds. Haraguchi says that it happened so fast that he didn’t realize until later that he had actually taken his left foot out of the water to brace for the impact— which then inadvertently pushed the shark’s head off the kayak.
“If you asked me to do that again, even without the shark, I don’t think I’d have that flexibility,” he wrote on YouTube, adding that he thought the shark had only rammed his boat until he watched the footage at home.
Tiger shark attacks
According to the University of Hawaii, tiger sharks are one of three main species of shark known to attack humans, and are believed to be responsible for the most shark attacks in Hawaii. Shark attacks typically occur approximately three to four times a year in Hawaii—although that number has been climbing in recent years—and most are not fatal.
After encountering a wounded seal shortly after the attack, however, Haraguchi thinks that the shark went after his kayak confusing it for its prey. But with a recent uptick in shark sightings, he plans to bring a partner from now on when he goes fishing.
“I realize that life is short, time is short on Earth, so make the most of it,” he added.
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Source: Yahoo
