Kaimani Ventura swam up to the dangerous six-foot-long predator in an attempt to rescue it from fishing nets.

14:23, Thu, Dec 18, 2025 Updated: 14:33, Thu, Dec 18, 2025

A shark

Mr Ventura was attacked by a shark he was attempting to free from fishing nets (Image: Getty )

A brave surfer described the moment a shark took a "chomp" out of his leg as he tried to rescue the stricken beast tangled in old fishing nets. Animal lover Kaimani Ventura, 24, encountered the blacktip reef shark, which can grow to around six-foot-long, during a spear-fishing dive off the Big Island, Hawaii, on December 9.

Mr Ventura and a diving buddy were attempting to release the large predator, which appeared to have been stuck in the nets for some time, but he said the animal suddenly got "spooked". Seconds after the shark was freed, it began thrashing violently and sank its rows of teeth into Mr Ventura's left thigh, leaving a huge gash in his leg.

“So, I try like, try kicking away. At like, two, three kicks, boom. I felt the chomp," he said, “The shark kind of got spooked, just having two unfamiliar things right there just spooked it.

Mr Ventura and the shark bite

Mr Ventura needed 70 staples and 90 stitches in the deep wound (Image: Kaimani Ventura/ Instagram )

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“I like stick my head out the water, and I’m like, ‘I just got bit!’ and right there, I don’t wait for nothing, I dropped my speargun and dropped my knife, everything, and I just turn around and start swimming."

Mr Ventura was able to make it to shore and applied a tourniquet using his own diving gear. Hawaiian media reported he was airlifted to Kona Community Hospital, where doctors closed the deep wounds with 70 staples and 90 stitches, but he said is recovering well and has no regrets.

"The surgeon, the infectious disease guys, the nurses, the staff, everybody was epic. They’re all epic people,” Ventura said.

He added: "Brah, I never learn my lesson. I always going to help the shark. I always going to help wildlife in general, but for anyone at home watching this, don’t be a hero. There’s people that are trained to do this kind of thing."

Mr Ventura's leg

Mr Ventura was left with a shark mouth-sized bite on his leg (Image: Kaimani Ventura/ Instagram )

Blacktip reef sharks are found throughout the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and warmer seas around the Middle East. Like many species of shark, the females grow larger than the males to an average size of around five feet long, with larger specimens reaching six foot.

Blacktips are usually timid around divers and swimmers, preferring to swim away and avoid an encounter.

However, as of late 2025 there have been 14 attacks registered this year, and around 40 interactions were recorded in total on the International Shark Attack File, a database of shark incidents which has compiled records dating back to the 1500s.