And the Hopkins villagers aren't the only ones dueling with nature - a San Pedro man had to wrestle with a reef shark yesterday.
Brian Bradley is still recovering at the KHMH after the shark's teeth tore into his arm. It was a terrifying experience that happened while spearfishing near Turneffe island.
But, thankfully, his injuries weren't life threatening - though his arm definitely needed some stitches. And, today, his friend, Francisco Morales, told us that they were in a kayak when Bradley spotted a grouper. He chased after it, followed by Morales, and they caught it about 50 feet from the kayak. And it was while Bradley was taking the fish back to the kayak that the shark attacked. Here how he explained it:
Francisco Morales, Friend of Victim
"We caught the grouper and Brian said we will take the grouper to the kayak so when he was 25 feet away from me, he was swimming towards the kayak when I heard him shout, quad! He was like, he looked like he needed help so I started swimming towards him and when I started swimming towards him, I saw the shark was coming to attack him. The shark already attacked him the first time, he had his hand like this, out of the water, and then when he shouted for me, I reached right on time, and I saw the shark was coming to attack so I have my speargun, I cranked my speargun and when I looked, I shot the shark and missed him. Those baby shark, like five feet, they're fast, way faster, so when I shot [at] the shark, the shark just move side way like that."
"And then I saw he was coming back again, so I came to Brian, I saw the shark was coming back to Brian again because his hand was bleeding a lot, a lot of blood in the water, a big chunk of meet like that, apart, and then I start see a lot of blood, and I start see the shark coming again, and I didn[t anymore backup, you know the steel that I used for my speargun, I didn't have anymore. i only had the speargun, the long speargun, and when the shark came to me, I grabbed the stick and I whopped it in the water like that. And then the shark went."
"I was like 20 minutes fighting with the shark right there and then Brian my friend, he told me, quad, I feel like I'm fainting. I told him, don't worry about anything. I grabbed him, I hugged him and I started to swim. I told him, put your head down so the shark doesn't come. And I started swim and then I start shout, Roy!, Roy! And then Roy heard me and when Roy heard me, he started to kick too, fast, and then he saw his brother was bleeding a lot, I told him help me! And me and him grabbed his brother and we put him in the kayak and we started to wave, the boat was parked like 100 feet, we started to wave and the captain saw it. And the captain started to come fast, and we just put him in the boat, and we take off straight here to San Pedro to the clinic."
