More than 30 US Coast Guard personnel were enjoying a quick swim in “perfect weather” when one of the most dreaded messages a swimmer can hear blared over their ship’s loudspeaker: “Shark in the water!”
Dozens of crew members from the USCGC ‘Kimball,’ accompanied by an inflatable unicorn, were caught unawares by the terrifying announcement that a two-meter-long shark was attempting to join their lunchtime swim on Tuesday.
Quick-thinking Maritime Enforcement Specialist 1st Class Samuel Cintron opened fire on the shark from the deck of the ‘Kimball’ with several shots across the beast’s bow to buy his shipmates time to flee to safety as heart-wrenching video shows.
The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Kimball's crew took a well-earned break from their patrol to enjoy some time swimming in the South Pacific's beautiful waters when a creature from the deep surfaced to visit them!Good thing the watchful of the crew on Kimball's flight deck spotted the 6-8 foot shark swimming close to the nearly 40 crewmembers in the water. ME1 Samual Cintron, who was on Shark Watch, took action and fired on the shark to scare it away from the swimmers.Good news to report – the crew, shark, and unicorn floaty all appeared unscathed from the encounter!We can already hear the sea stories about this, and each time the story is told, the shark grows by a foot!Over the past 4-weeks, Kimball's mission has been to detect, deter, suppress, and report potential illegal, unregulated or unreported (IUU) fishing activity in remote U.S. EEZs, Fiji's EEZ and on the high seas.Kimball was operating in the waters near Fiji, where the shark incident occurred to combat illegal fishing in U.S. and our partner nation's waters.#BZ to the Kimball’s crew and to ME1 Cintron for the quick action!🎥 by OSC A.J. LaBarr – Kimball crewVisit the Coast Guard Cutter Kimball's Facebook page @USCGCKimball to read the full story and see more photos!
He dissuaded the shark momentarily but it persisted, forcing crew members to scramble aboard a small boat nearby, up the rear ladders of the ‘Kimball’ and through open hatches.
Miraculously, all crew members made it back on board safely and no sharks were harmed in the incident either.
“We even saved the inflatable unicorn,” USCGC said.
Having reviewed the footage, the USCGC believes it was a Long-Fin Mako or Pelagic Thresher shark, which they said was “not something to mess with.” The shark reportedly rejoined his gang of smaller sharks and made off into the distance.
“We don’t think the shark was injured… It later joined a few smaller buddies that showed up and they swam off together,” the crew added.
