{"id":86896,"date":"2025-08-21T19:05:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T19:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/86896\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T19:05:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T19:05:06","slug":"a-fisherman-wanted-a-picture-of-his-catch-the-6-foot-shark-bit-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/86896\/","title":{"rendered":"A fisherman wanted a picture of his catch. The 6-foot shark bit him."},"content":{"rendered":"

A fisherman on a birthday trip in Florida suffered serious injuries to his leg over the weekend while posing with a large shark <\/a>for a photo after he and his friends caught the animal.<\/p>\n

The encounter took place on the barrier island of Cayo Costa in southwest Florida, Boca Grande District Fire Chief C.W. Blosser confirmed to USA TODAY on Aug. 21.<\/p>\n

Cayo Costa is in Lee County west of Naples.<\/p>\n

According to Blosser, the man was taken to a hospital to be treated after the shark bit his leg during the Aug. 16 incident that occurred just before 11 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n

Two\u00a0911 calls alerted authorities<\/a>\u00a0of the shark bite, reported the Fort Meyers News-Press,<\/a> part of the USA TODAY Network.<\/p>\n

“We caught a lemon shark. … We just took the hook out,” 48-year-old Shawn Meuse said. “We’re getting ready to release him back in the water, and he turned around and bit me.”<\/p>\n

\"While<\/p>\n

While taking a photo, the shark squirmed and chomped down on a man\u2019s leg in Lee County, FL.<\/p>\n

Shark attack: American tourist in Bahamas suffers ‘severe injuries’<\/a><\/p>\n

Fisherman bit by shark was posing with photo with it<\/p>\n

Video shows Meuse holding the shark by the nose along a shoreline as another man lifts the shark\u2019s tail fin.<\/p>\n

Footage goes on to show the shark struggling to avoid capture, apparently attempting to get back into the water.<\/p>\n

Watch the harrowing moment in the video at the top of the story.<\/p>\n

‘For the picture, for the memory’<\/p>\n

The injured man told Storyful and local NBC News<\/a> the shark reared as he attempted to hold the nearly 6-foot lemon shark, before it bit his leg below his knee.<\/p>\n

Footage of the video shot by one of Meuse’s friends shows the shark flop back into the water.<\/p>\n

“They took me off the boat, threw me in the ambulance and drove me to the helicopter and now I’m here,” Meuse told the TV station in an interview from the hospital where he said he had undergone surgery.<\/p>\n

When a reporter asked why Meuse wanted a photo with the shark he responded, “For the picture, for the memory.”<\/p>\n

After the incident, Blosser reminded people to never underestimate mother nature.<\/p>\n

“He got lucky,” the chief told USA TODAY. “It could have been a lot worse.”<\/p>\n

Fatal Florida Turnpike crash: Truck driver facing deportation after wreck kills 3<\/a><\/p>\n

How many people die from shark attacks every year?<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0data from the\u00a0<\/a>International Shark Attack File<\/a>,\u00a0run by the\u00a0Florida Museum of Natural History<\/a>, the world averages\u00a065 documented\u00a0shark attacks<\/a>\u00a0annually.<\/p>\n

On average,\u00a0six fatal attacks<\/a>\u00a0are reported each year, data shows.<\/p>\n

Last year, 47 people were bitten in unprovoked attacks.<\/p>\n

Contributing: Tomas Rodriguez<\/a>, Fort Myers News-Press<\/p>\n

Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fisherman bit by shark in Cayo Costa, Florida, while posing for photo<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A fisherman on a birthday trip in Florida suffered serious injuries to his leg over the weekend while…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[51584,49,48,51583,6388,51581,66,15188,51582,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-86896","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-c-w-blosser","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-cayo-costa","12":"tag-florida","13":"tag-lemon-shark","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-shark-bite","16":"tag-shawn-meuse","17":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}