An amazing shark rescue was captured on video by a group a divers on the Stuart Cove’s Dive Bahamas Shark Adventure dive, after the shark approached them for help.

On April 4th, 2015, a group of divers in the waters of Nassau, Bahamas, saw a Caribbean Reef Shark swim into the dive area where Stuart Cove’s Dive Bahamas staff were performing their daily Shark feeding dive. The female shark had a thick rope around the throat, cutting into the skin and gills. The shark appeared to approach shark feeder Charlotte Faulkner for help and became subdued upon a gentle touch.

"The feeders at Stuart Cove’s Dive Bahamas had noticed this poor female shark a few times over the last few weeks, but she had remained shy and not come close enough for us to help her" she said. "On this particular day, she came very close and seemed to swim slower and closer than the other animals, almost as if she was asking for help. She swam right into my grasp where I held her gently, trying to induce tonic immobility”. Tonic immobility is a hypnotic state entered into by sharks when millions of receptors on the snout are stimulated. “The line was so tight around the throat that photographer Pia Venegas and myself worked as a team using a sharp knife to cut the rope free. We were worried that if we were unsuccessful, we might tighten the rope and hurt her more. Thankfully the rope cut easily with the extra sharp knife and fell away from her body. We had to give it a little tug to become fully free, as it had started meshing with her skin.”

Once freed, the shark swam away but then returned to Charlotte and Pia. “It seemed as though she came back to thank us for freeing her, as she engaged again in Tonic immobility where I was able to easily feed her a piece of bait. Her wounds look horrific, however sharks are known for their incredible healing ability so we will be watching her closely over the next month to monitor the progress of her healing.”

"It’s because of our daily shark feeding dive that we are able to help sharks, mainly through education, but often directly by removing  hooks and lines from the animals. This is the first shark that appeared to ask us for help."

The experience was captured by two guest divers and by Fin Photos, Pia Venegas.

"We are so happy to capture this event on film to show that sharks are not man eaters, but intelligent animals worthy of protection", photographer Pia stated. The Bahamas banned the commercial fishing of sharks back in 2011, and are in the forefront of shark conservation. It is estimated that 100 million sharks are killed annually worldwide through fishing or caught as by catch (unwanted catch when targeting species such as swordfish). 

 Sadly we still see people enjoying the act of fishing or lassoing sharks for sport, we see the direct results and the sharks suffering. Charlotte says that “if this footage can encourage our generation to make better decisions for the ocean, by dispelling the “JAWS” image of sharks, stopping sport fishing of endangered species and by encouraging sustainable fish choices, the work we do here is all worth it.”

Written by Charlotte Faulkner