Someone Give This Guy a Prize - Oceana USA
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September 5, 2007

Someone Give This Guy a Prize

A Coney Island lifeguard shooed off 75 to 100 swimmers who surrounded a two-foot sand shark, punching and harrassing it, according to this AP story.

The lifeguard gathered the tiny shark in his arms and swam it out to sea. What a nice guy!

Says Ben Freitas, a science fellow with Oceana: “I’m guessing the ‘sand shark’ was actually a juvenile sand tiger shark, which is a rather fairly docile and relatively harmless species. It’s also prohibited from being caught in U.S. waters because its population has decreased so precipitously.”

Sharks have a fearsome reputation, but humans kill about 100 million sharks a year. Now, sharks need our help more than ever. Kudos to our lifeguard friend.