Divers saved the life of a nurse shark trapped in a Florida reef by fishing line and called it a “magical moment” and a “one-in-a-million encounter.”
Randel Sands and Ron William Nash were diving about 200 yards off Lauderdale-by-the-Sea near the pier doing some reef cleanup Monday when they spotted the 6-foot nurse shark lying on the ocean floor amongst the reef, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
They noticed fishing lines holding the nurse shark hostage to the reef, as the shark couldn’t move.
“When we found her she was just laying on her belly motionless,” Sands explained to the Sun Sentinel. “She had given up [and] was probably fatigued and she would have been dead in a few hours.”
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Wearing a GoPro camera, Sands recorded the rescue effort involving the cutting away of fishing line. Once free of the fishing lines, the nurse shark swam away.
“We realized the line was dug into the ground and wrapped around the coral and it was weighted too [with] a pyramid weight on the end,” Sands told the Sun Sentinel. “There was at least one fishing hook that was in her mouth [and a] three-pronged hook was trailing behind on the line.
“I could see her looking at me…almost as if she knew we were helping her. So it was kind of a magical moment for us. It was pretty amazing.”
Sands also called it a “one-in-a-million encounter.”
