A former NFL player was bitten by a shark in Florida.
Warren Sapp,43, was hunting lobster with a charter in the Florida Keys July 27. The group was approximately seven miles off of Marathon in 9 feet of water as Sapp looked for crustaceans.
The former Bucs defensive tackle spotted what he thought was a nurse shark lying in a lobster hole. Sapp reached in the hole and said he felt something “soft”. He then looked into the other side of the hole and confirmed it was a shark.
“I snatched him[the shark] out with my right hand and then with my left I grabbed him by the tail,” Sapp told The Rich Eisen Show. The shark was then proceeded to bite Sapp on the inside of his left arm.
“It’s simple; he was lobstering with me and a shark bit Sapp while he was grabbing the lobster. He’s okay,” charter captain Jack Carlson told the Tampa Bay Times. “The sharks hang around those lobster holes, because they feed on the lobster as well.”
The member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame decided not to seek medical attention, preferring to doctor the wound himself.
“We bandaged it up, put some gauze on there, some black electrical tape and hit a couple more spots, then headed in,” Carlson said.
The shark involved was thought to be around 4 feet long.
This is the 52 shark attack bite of 2016. Five of which were fatal. Twenty-two reported in the US, with 14 occurring in Florida. Eleven have occurred in Australia, 3 of which were fatal.
All locations have been marked on the 2016 shark attack bites tracking map.
*updated August 4, 2016.
