By Pete Thomas
Footage has surfaced showing a large shark ripping a mask from the face of a scuba diver at Rangiroa in French Polynesia.
The 2007 footage, recently released in high definition, shows the unidentified diver having briefly settled at the bottom when a large shark veers in and bites his mask.
The mask comes off and the diver rolls backward. He suffered only a scratch on his forehead, according to reports.
Peter Schneider, who was part of the group of divers, was interviewed by the Daily Mail last week. “I couldn’t help but scream when I saw it happen,” Schneider recalled. “Once the sharks had cleared, I swam over to check on him.”
Schneider said that several silvertip sharks were circling at the time and that the diver had been teasing the sharks with bait used to attract the predators.
“I didn’t have any pity for the diver as he’d provoked the reaction and he knew it,” Schneider said.
Silvertip sharks inhabit tropical portions of the Pacific and Indian Ocean. They measure to about 10 feet and are powerful and aggressive feeders.
The Florida Museum, which maintains the International Shark Attack File, states that silvertips should be treated with caution “due to [their] size and abundance around offshore reefs.”
The species, however, is implicated in only one unprovoked attack on a human.
–Image is a video screen grab
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