HONOLULU — A Hawaii spear fisherman who was bit in the leg by a tiger shark off the coast of the Big Island swam to shore and then filmed a video of his deep wound as he was being carried away on a gurney.
“I just got attacked by a tiger shark,” an exasperated Braxton Rocha, 27, of Kapaau, Hawaii, said in the shaky video posted to Instagram. The footage pans down the man’s body to a gaping gash in the middle of his left leg.
“Love you, brah,” a friend standing near him says. “Love you too, brah,” Rocha replies before the clip ends.
A 13-foot-long tiger shark bit Rocha’s leg Sunday afternoon as he spearfished off the northern tip of the Big Island, officials said. He swam to shore after the ******, and his fishing companion called ***, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources said in a press release.
Rocha was flown by helicopter to a hospital for surgery. His condition was not immediately known.
State officials said they did not close beaches because the ****** happened in a remote area off Upolu Point. It had rained heavily, and they warned people not to go into the ocean afterward because murky water can attract sharks.
WARNING: Video is graphic.