A Florida man who loves to spend his free time on the water now has two wild stories to tell, one involving a shark and the other involving a gator, plus he has the scars to prove it.
Justin Stuller, from Estero, told the Fort Myers News-Press that he and his family went to the Florida Keys last week to catch some spiny lobsters as part of the mini season but his fishing experience was cut short when an 8-foot lemon shark took a bite out of him instead.
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It all started when he dove down to some rocks to retrieve an injured fish.
“I put (the fish) in a hole, and right before I surfaced, wham,” he told the newspaper. “I felt the skin more than the shark. It rolled me over and I saw it swimming away.”
Now with a gaping wound on his leg, he swam back to the surface and alerted his family and fishing buddies to get out of the water.
Stuller said once they were back on the boat, they were able to assess the damage and perform first aid measures that included applying gauze and bandages to stop the bleeding.
“I tied it off and actually lost very little blood,” Stuller told the News-Press. “It was pretty deep, but no bone. I was very lucky, no tendons.”
Ultimately though, the first aid kit wasn’t going to cut it. Stuller ended up going to a hospital in the Keys where he received nearly two dozen stitches.
But it’ll take more than that to keep the seasoned fisherman and diver away from the water. He told WINK News that he was once gator hunting with two friends and had the gator roped when the reptile opted for some revenge.
“As he rolled he kind of clamped on my leg, you know?” Stuller told the TV station. “One good clamp and then one real good clamp.”
Despite the apparent bad luck, Stuller remains optimistic.
“I mean, a lot worse things that could happen in those cases in my opinion,” Stuller told WINK. “It was as good of a bad experience as you could have, I would say.”
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