Shark Bites Man's Hand, Pulls Him Overboard In FL Everglades

FLORIDA — A man had a too-close encounter while fishing in the Florida Everglades last week when a shark bit his hand, causing him to fall from the boat and into the murky water below.

According to video obtained by television station Local 10 News and posted to Instagram by a Florida social media account, the jaw-dropping encounter happened when a man in a white hoodie bent over the side of his boat to wash his hands. Someone off-screen tells him, "I wouldn't put your hands in there."

The man argued back. "Ah, two seconds won't do anything."

As the man dipped his right hand in the water, a shark emerged and bit his hand, causing him to fall into the water. The man screamed for help while his friends off-screen shouted, "Get him! Get him! Get him!"

According to Local 10 News, park EMTs treated the man before he was airlifted to a nearby hospital by Miami-Dade Fire Rescue.

A Everglades and Dry Tortugas National Parks spokesperson confirmed to CBS News that the incident happened on June 23. The spokesperson said those in the boat were fishing in Florida Bay, between the mainland and the Florida Keys.

The spokesperson told CBS it's unclear what species of shark bit the man, though it was likely a lemon or bull shark.

"While shark bites are extremely uncommon in Everglades National Park, we always recommend visitors take caution around park wildlife," the spokesperson told CBS News.

Michael Russo, a passenger on the boat who shared video of the harrowing encounter with Local 10 News and the Florida Instagram account, called it "one of the scariest days on the water" he ever experienced.

"There was no chum or blood in the water and the sharks were unprovoked," Russo said on Instagram. "The sharks are no joke in the Everglades and the warnings about keeping your hands out of the water are not an exaggeration. Please take this as a lesson and keep your hands out of the water because this could have been prevented."

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, lemon and bull sharks can be found in estuaries and nearshore waters of the Florida Gulf and Atlantic coasts.

Both species of sharks commonly enter estuarine waters and often venture into freshwater areas, though lemon sharks don't penetrate as far up rivers as the bull shark, which will sometimes venture hundreds of miles inland.