A Grey Nurse Shark capsized a fishing boat with its three crewmen aboard when they harpooned it off Santiago de Cuba coast, and dragged the boat to open sea.
Yoandri Lopez, 35, told Cuban News Agency he was fishing with paternoster line with another two workers of the Aserradero fishing base in eastern Cuban province of Santiago de Cuba, when they saw the shark.
Trying to protect their capture, they harpooned the almost five meter long animal, and it went below the boat and capsized it, sending them flying overboard, and started dragging the vessel.
The fishermen had just enough time to grab their lifesavers and a cooler, which it was wrapped in foam rubber and could be used to stay afloat, and swam for their lives.
¨We all thought it might come back to attack us¨, Lopez, visibly moved by the memory says, ¨we swam for seven hours till another boat from our base picked us up¨
For 12 days the workers of the fishing base have tried to find the missing boat, but so far they have found just an oar.
Jokingly, the men say that in case they don’t find it anymore, they will baptize the next boat they get as the Grey Nurse Shark.
This species is very common in these waters, and during the hot season they venture near Cuban coasts looking for warmer currents
Source: cubanews.acn.cu
