A mother in North Carolina has been filmed fearlessly removing a fishing hook from the mouth of a stranded shark before helping return the animal to the sea.
The dramatic rescue took place at Cape Hatteras on July 4, after the shark became hooked while the woman and her family were fishing.
According to Olivia Talbot, who captured the footage, the shark grabbed the bait and dragged the fishing line roughly 200 yards along the beach before the family managed to bring it ashore.
With a crowd gathering to watch, the woman pinned the shark between her legs and carefully worked to free the hook from its mouth.
Despite the animal writhing and struggling, she used her bare hands to hold its jaws while wielding a pair of pliers to remove the trapped wire.
Once the hook was successfully removed, she calmed the shark and helped guide it back into the water.
Talbot said the woman acted quickly because the shark was believed to be a species close to endangered status.
“To my knowledge, this specific shark is nearly classified as endangered, so she worked as quickly as possible to unhook it,” Talbot said.
“She released him quickly after.”
The footage has since drawn attention online, with bystanders appearing shocked as the woman worked at close range with the potentially dangerous animal.
The rescue comes amid a number of reported shark encounters in US waters this summer, including a suspected great white encounter involving a veteran lifeguard in Maine and a separate shark attack off the Bahamas in July.
In the Maine incident, 71-year-old lifeguard Greg Wilfert said he was pulled several feet underwater at Scarborough Beach State Park, where he had worked as a lifeguard for more than five decades.
Meanwhile, 69-year-old Connecticut man John Schweizer was reportedly dragged underwater by a shark off the Bahamas on July 24 while on a family cruise celebrating his 40th wedding anniversary.
