Fearless diver removes hook from endangered shark's mouth
- 6 years ago
++CLIENTS PLEASE NOTE: THIS VIDEO HAS BEEN LOOPED++ This is the heart-stopping moment a brave diver comes face to face with a whitetip shark to pull out a hook from its mouth.
The slow-motion clip, captured off the Bahamas, shows the diver and marine biologist Leigh Cobb giving the shark bait before pulling out the hook from the animal’s mouth.
The filmer writes: ''I fed her and then call her in with my right hand.
''I hold her front of the nose which you can see she closes her eyes into tonic immobility, right-hand twists the final twist and the hook is out.
''These sharks are critically endangered and we need to protect them from extinction.
''We spent 4 days with these sharks diving up to 6 hours every day, we had 12 sharks every day, most with hooks which wouldn’t rust out without our intervention.''
Oceanic whitetip sharks are listed as threatened species after being decimated by fishing and the shark fin trade.
The slow-motion clip, captured off the Bahamas, shows the diver and marine biologist Leigh Cobb giving the shark bait before pulling out the hook from the animal’s mouth.
The filmer writes: ''I fed her and then call her in with my right hand.
''I hold her front of the nose which you can see she closes her eyes into tonic immobility, right-hand twists the final twist and the hook is out.
''These sharks are critically endangered and we need to protect them from extinction.
''We spent 4 days with these sharks diving up to 6 hours every day, we had 12 sharks every day, most with hooks which wouldn’t rust out without our intervention.''
Oceanic whitetip sharks are listed as threatened species after being decimated by fishing and the shark fin trade.