I have nothing but the utmost respect for sharks. They are one of nature’s original badasses and undeniably cool as hell. I admire the calm confidence they exude and the way they can both sleep and go about their daily business at the same time (the dream). I would not, however, hand-feed a shark. That is about where I draw the line.
Why, I hear you ask? Just kidding, you know why: because sharks have mouths that are just packed full of teeth and, boy, do they know how to use them.
As the Sunday Times is reporting, Perth woman Melissa Brunning suffered a shark bite to her finger while feeding a ‘placid’ tawny nurse shark off the back of a yacht in Dugong Bay, around 250km north of Broome, WA. Brunning was apparently the last of her friends to give feeding the sharks a go, but didn’t realise she was just meant to place the fish near them, not actually hand-feed it to them.
One of the sharks took a bite at Brunning’s hand, pulling her into water that the Times described as “croc-infested“, which seems like adding insult to injury given, y’know, THE SHARKS.
One of her friend’s was filming the incident, which is just about as terrifying looking as it sounds:
SHARK SCARE
Video has captured the terrifying moment a Perth woman was dragged into the water by a shark. pic.twitter.com/pmVvBogoHS— 7NEWS Perth (@7NewsPerth) June 30, 2018
Brunning was lucky enough to retain her finger, but a visit to hospital revealed that the finger was infected and had sustained a fracture and a torn ligament.
She told the Sunday Times that she knew the incident was “completely” her fault and did not blame the shark: “It’s not the shark’s fault at all, but it could have been a lot worse.” Sure could have.
