People who are willing to risk themselves for the sake of a rescued animal are true
heroes in my opinion.
While most missions happen on land, there have been some inspiring rescue operations
under the sea.
When one diver was approached by a shark during an aquatic adventure, he panicked for a second
until he realized that the shark was in need of help!
Josh Eccles, who is one of our local divers in Jupiter Florida, was diving with the Emerald
Dive Charters.
For the last five years, he has been diving and feels that it's truly an art.
For the past five years, Eccles has been diving into the waters of Jupiter, Florida.
He does this three times a day every single day.
Needless to say, the man has a ton of experience.
However, on one particular day, Eccles went diving with his team and could tell that something
wasn’t right.
While in the Atlantic Ocean, a shark continuously tried to get his attention.
It was very strange.
The shark that was trying desperately to get the diver’s attention was a lemon shark.
“They always bump into us but they don’t bump into us that frequently,” Eccles told
WPBF.
That’s how he knew something was wrong.
“This female shark kept constantly bumping into me,” Eccles told CBS News.
“And when she would bump into me, she would lift up her head, showing me her stomach.”
It was pretty intimidating, to say the least.
It’s not unusual to run into lemon sharks when diving in the Jupiter waters.
Local residents constantly have run-ins with the sharks on the beach.
However, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t an intimidating bunch.
Running into lemon sharks can be a pretty scary sighting.
These sharks are very powerful and can reach lengths of up to 11 feet.
They also feast on other sharks, large seabirds, and other sea creatures.
However, even though lemon sharks are big and powerful they’re typically not aggressive
toward humans.
That’s why when Eccles had run-ins with them before he was never quite fearful of
the situation.
After the shark had continuously nudged Eccles, he realized that something was up.
That’s when he decided to see what the shark was trying to show him.
Suddenly, Eccles saw what the problem was!
As Eccles looked closer, he saw that there was a huge hook sticking out of the shark’s
belly.
“It would lift up its stomach and I noticed something, so I kind of poked at it a little,
the little hook or something,” Eccles explained.
Eccles began to try and help by pulling out the hook.
However, the first time he tried to help, the shark quickly swam away.
This wasn’t going to be an easy rescue.
Eventually, the shark swam back to Eccles.
This time, he grabbed the shark by the head and pulled up so that he could get a better
look.
“It was metal,” he said.
“It wouldn’t give.
I would slowly pull, pull, pull.”
Eccles continued to pull and pull in order to get the object out.
He could tell that it was a hook, however, he didn’t know just how big it was.
Finally, he was able to pull the thing out and it was enormous.
When Eccles finally worked the hook out he was shocked by the size of it.
Eccles, who is 6-foot-3-inches tall and 200 pounds said that the hook was the size of
his hand.
It’s no wonder the shark was so adamant about its removal.
“It was the kind of thing she definitely wanted out,” he said.
“As soon as I started messing with it, [the shark] was like ‘Get this out of me.’”
Eccles has an idea of how it had gotten stuck in the first place.
Eccles believes the shark must have swallowed the hook over a year ago.
Finally, the hook had worked its way out of her body.
“That was a crazy opportunity, experience to be a part of,” Eccles said.
Eccles and his team had been filming the entire interaction when they captured something else
amazing on camera.
It seems that at one point the shark swam up to the camera as a way to give thanks.
Once the hook had been removed from the shark’s belly, she was grateful and ready to be on
her way.
She enthusiastically swam away and into the clear waters.
Eccles felt accomplished.
What Eccles and his team got to experience was something truly incredible.
Getting that close to a lemon shark that was injured without getting hurt is a spectacular
occurrence.
Eccles is a true hero for going out of his way to help out the poor lemon shark.
This allowed it to experience life in its natural environment again.