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Veterinarian reaches into shark's throat to remove hook it swallowed
It's good to know people don't always torture sharks and sharks don't always torture people. Sometimes, we even help each other out. David Blyde, a veterinarian in Australia, was willing to plunge his arm up to his shoulder into the throat of a 10-foot nurse shark to save the animal after it swallowed a large hook. It was stuck in the animal's digestive tract, leaving a long metal handle sticking from its mouth, AP reports.
The gray nurse shark is apparently one of Australia's most endangered marine species because it was fished to near-extinction, with some estimates running as low a fewer than 300 animals left in the wild in waters off Australia's east coast.
I wrote about nurse sharks just last week. In Belize, you can swim with them and pet them. The Australian grey nurse shark is a little different than the kind they have in Belize. Still, it is generally much smaller than the more aggressive great white. It is also not considered a threat to humans, but its bite could still do serious damage.
The "hooked shark" was spotted by divers on Monday as it swam with a group of others near Byron Bay, 500 miles north of Sydney. After the animal was captured and placed in a holding tank, rescuers pushed a stiff plastic pipe into the shark's throat. Blyde then reach down through the pipe to free the hook.
Blyde told reporters that "as a veterinarian you often end up putting your hands in places that people find somewhat unattractive."I think I could think of several different professions with the same problem.
Filed under: Scuba Diving, Australia
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Brenda SFO Jul 19th 2008 9:39AM
Ira, I dove with a dozen nurse sharks in Manly Bay (Sydney) Australia. It was quite fun and I highly recommend it! I took my two sons (who are novice divers) and they were stoked! Here's a video of what it's like:
http://www.video.scubadata.com/show-video.php?media=http://youtube.com/v/eOs6ww7XT-0.swf&tag=beach+manly&title=Shark%20Dive&x=1
Iva Skoch Jul 19th 2008 9:40AM
Very cool!
david harris Jul 19th 2008 11:46AM
what happened to the shark that you were trying to save? hope he,s ok, good on ya.
david harris Jul 23rd 2008 2:09AM
what happened to the shark you were trying to save? hope he,s ok, good on ya for trying anyway. regards david,
Scuba Diving Oct 4th 2008 7:53AM
It's truly impressive to know that there are scuba divers out there that go beyond the recreation or sport in diving...To more followers of this noble pursuit out there, don't forget to gear up and make the most out of quality scuba diving equipment for a fuss-free hero on duty...Kudos to such courage!