Good Samaritans are being praised online for saving the life of the “world’s fastest shark” after the predator became stranded on a beach in Brazil. A video of the dramatic rescue is currently making waves on social media.
“The shark was dragged to the water, and it ended up swimming away,” cameraman Rogerio Dos Santos Rodrigues told Jam Press of the incident, which occurred last week on a beach in Itanhaém, São Paulo.
Beachcombers had been strolling along the beach when they happened upon the beached shortfin mako, which is the world’s fastest shark capable of attaining speeds of up to 45 miles per hour. It can also grow up to nearly 15 feet in length and up to 1,100 pounds, per the Encyclopedia Britannica.
Local painter Edvan Silva said he was “frightened” when he first saw the mako, explaining: “I surf this beach, and I’m getting worried. Lately, a number of sharks have been showing up here.”
Despite being in the presence of a fearsome predator, the “Jaws”-struck pedestrians came together to rescue the stranded sea beast.
In the ensuing footage, a Samaritan can be seen dragging the blue mako — estimated to be about 5-feet long — toward the sea by the tail. All of a sudden, the fish starts thrashing about wildly, forcing the bystander to drop it on the beach, whereupon a woman bravely grabs it by the tail and pulls it the rest of the way like a mako relay race.
A second clip shows the shark swimming in the shallows shortly after the rescue.
Members of the Biopesca Institute arrived shortly thereafter to investigate the incident, but by that point, the fish had swum way, and did not “beach again,” per the organization.
Rescuing the mako was important due to the scarcity of the species.
It’s unclear why sharks get stranded, but it could be due to a multitude of factors, ranging from “disorientation of their sensory organs for navigating, sudden changes in oceanographic conditions — weather changes, cold fronts — to injury caused by human action, fisheries, etc,” per the researcher.
This isn’t the first mako encounter to make a splash of late. In a far more frightening incident earlier this month, one of the speedy fish-eaters was filmed leaping out of the water and into a charter fishing boat in front of stunned high school students and their fathers.
