A Florida fisherman is “lucky” to be alive after he fell off into shark-infested waters in the Bahamas last month and was attacked, suffering a wound inches away from his artery.
Marlin Wakeman, 24, was at the Flying Fish Marina in Long Island on April 26 when he tried to jump to the docked boat he was working on.
Wakeman told NBC News that he “always kind of thought about” his fear of falling into the water.
“Me and my buddies were talking about like, man, if you fell in here, like, you are done. You’re not even going to have a second to really react,” Wakeman said Thursday at a news conference at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach
The waters around the marina are a feeding frenzy for at least 20 sharks at any moment due to fishermen dumping fish carcasses into the water.
The young fisherman noted the water is so heavily overrun with Caribbean reef sharks that a person “can walk on their heads almost.”
Wakeman slipped off the dock and into the waters as the underwater predators attacked, biting him twice.
“When I ended up in the water, I pretty much knew what was going to happen,” he recalled. “And when he bit me, I knew what was going on. There wasn’t a second of doubt in my mind.”
Wakeman recalled that a first shark tried pulling him under before letting go, and he was “really lucky he didn’t head shake or hold on for a while.”
As the 24-year-old was about to reach the surface, a second shark latched onto his shoulder.
“You really don’t feel the teeth going in,” he said, noting that the second bite felt more like a “punch.”
The experienced fisherman pulled himself out of the water and onto his boat once the second shark released him from its jaws.
“I had so much adrenaline going through my body that it was like a fight-or-flight kind of thing,” he told the outlet.
He noticed the severity of his injuries onboard the boat and saw his leg was “kind of, you know, all mangled.”
The boat’s captain jumped into action and tied a tourniquet to Wakeman’s leg.
He received treatment at a clinic in the Bahamas before he was flown out to St. Mary’s, where he’s been recovering since the near-death experience.
Florida doctors said one shark punctured Wakeman’s kneecap, nearly missing his artery.
“I’ve been dealing with this a lot, and I’ve seen some people that have not done as well,” Dr. Robert Borrego said, according to NBC News. “From hearing the story, it shocks me that he was able to get out of that water.”
The trauma surgeon estimated the shark to be about 7 feet long based on the size of the bite.
Borrego said he expects him to make a full recovery.
The 24-year-old said he’d return to the Bahamas and into the water as soon as he finishes rehabilitation following the traumatic attack.
“I may have some nightmares here or there, but I’ll be all right,” Wakeman said.
With Post wires
