Angler airlifted to Miami-Dade hospital after being bitten by shark in the Florida Keys
A fisherman was airlifted to a Miami-Dade County hospital Sunday evening after a shark he caught bit him as he tried to remove the hook from its mouth, according to state wildlife police.
But unlike a woman who was seriously wounded by a shark while swimming near the same area on June 29, authorities do not consider this incident an attack, said Officer Jason Rafter, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
The man, who has not been named, was bitten on the hand by what witnesses describe as a 6-foot-long lemon shark. He caught the shark, reeled it in and “got too close to its mouth” as he tried to remove the hook to release the fish, Rafter said.
Medics flew the man by helicopter ambulance to Jackson South Medical Center. His condition was not immediately known.
The incident happened between 5:30 and 6 p.m. near Content Keys, a group of mangrove-covered islands north of Big Torch Key in the Lower Keys, Rafter said.
In a July 19 Facebook post, Mandy Reeder, of Parrish, Florida, said her husband Brett Reeder was the angler bitten by what she said was a 5 to 6-foot lemon shark. He was trying to unhook the shark when it bit him, she said.
She also posted a video of the incident, warning viewers that it is graphic. In it, Brett Reeder is shown reaching down to touch the shark when it rears back and chomps on his pinky finger, as blood splatters on the shark.
Reeder curses in pain and walks away from the shark. His wife said he was doing fine after surgery and thankful it wasn’t worse. She also poked fun at her husband.
“Statistically speaking, for Brett, this was bound to happen,” she wrote in the post.
“Yeah, my fault. I put myself in that position,” Brett Reeder later told WSVN 7 News in Miami. Next time, he’ll let the shark go, he added.
In late June, a large shark bit Lindsay Bruns, a 35-year-old mother of two from Texas. The shark attacked Bruns as she and her family were swimming from a pontoon boat near the Tarpon Belly Keys, also in the Lower Keys, located only a few miles from Content Keys.
The bite wound extended from her hip to above her knee. Medics had to give Bruns 11 blood transfusions as they flew her to a Miami-Dade hospital.
Despite her wounds, Bruns was recovering well, her husband said earlier this month.
This story was originally published July 17, 2022 at 10:01 PM.
