PENSACOLA, Fla. (WSVN) — A Florida fisherman is sharing his story days after he became the target of an apex predator while spearfishing off the Gulf Coast.
Spearfishing is something Chance Armand does every week off Pensacola, but on Saturday, things took a dangerous turn.
“We have a shark by – near the Mahogany Mill Boat Ramp,” a caller told a 911 dispatcher.
The 28-year-old victim said he is thankful to have survived a bite from a bull shark.
The survivor said he was spearfishing 65 feet below the surface. He caught a fish, then noticed the 8-foot marine predator coming right at him.
“I was making my way up shortly after, and I probably got to about 55 feet, and my Spidey senses kicked in, and I looked down, and I saw this bull shark come flying up,” said Armand. “By the time I realized that, he was not going to stop. All I could do was just throw my knee in between him and my chest.”
At first, Armand said, no one on the boat realized he was hurt.
“Nobody knew that I was bit. I just told them there was a shark down there, and so, my buddy came over to help do exactly that, like, fight off the sharks,” he said. “With his mask in the water, he saw my knee filleted open, and that’s whenever he realized, he was like, ‘Oh, like, we need to get everybody in the boat.’”
Though his leg was bitten and bloody, Armand said, he only needed stitches.
With no medical kit on board, the survivor said, he’s lucky the bite didn’t end up worse.
Armand said he uses this incident as a reminder to anyone going on a boat or fishing to always have a medical kit with them.
At least a dozen shark bite incidents have been reported in the U.S. this year to date.