While majority of hammerhead sharks species are generally considered to be non-aggressive and not dangerous to humans, you still wouldn’t want to be in the water with one.
Especially if you are unprepared for the encounter and not expecting to see one so close to you.
However, this is exactly what happened to Malea Tribble and Gabriel Barajas when they were paddle boarding from Bimini, Bahamas to Lake Worth Beach, Florida.
They were on an 80-mile journey to raise money to help patients and families in the cystic fibrosis.
The race was organized by The Crossing for Cystic Fibrosis, which raises funds for Piper’s Angels Foundation.
They experienced a nerve-wracking encounter with a hammerhead shark near the Florida coast.
“It just so happened that out in the middle of the Gulf stream, 40 miles off the coast of Bimini, we got fundraising help from a five-foot hammerhead shark,” Barajas told WJZY.
In this video, you can see the fin of the hammerhead shark following Tribble while she was on her board.
The shark was spotted by Tribble’s husband who was in a support boat accompanying her on the journey.
“You’re doing good. Keep coming, keep coming,” you can hear her husband telling her. He didn’t tell her at first that he could see a shark right behind her.
“I felt a couple bumps, but I thought it was seaweed. I thought I may have picked up seaweed on my fin,” Tribble told Inside Edition.
Soon after, she found out that it wasn’t seaweed but a hammerhead shark.
“As soon as my husband turned around and looked right at me, his face dropped. I knew instantly that it had to be a shark,” Tribble said.
Her husband calmly told her to come to the side and this is when she asked him if it was a shark. He confirmed with a yes.
When Tribble was asked if she entered fight or flight mode when she found out it was a shark, she answered that she focused on staying on the board and she didn’t want to fall in to the water.
Tribble also just wanted to get into the boat and out of the open water.
When she was safely in the boat, she warned her companion who was still in the water about the hammerhead shark lurking nearby, signaling the presence of a fin with her hand.
The shark eventually swam away and Tribble was back on her paddle board in ten minutes.
She said she didn’t allow herself to be scared of the incident.
We’re sure that being in the open water with a wild shark is one of the most terrifying incidents a person can experience. However, Tribble and Barajas were calm and collected throughout the encounter.
Amazingly, they continued their race and focused on their goal – to raise money and awareness for cystic fibrosis.
If you want to learn more about or make a donation to Piper’s Angels Foundation, click here.
Watch the video of a hammerhead shark stalking a paddle boarder below!
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