Influencers are friends, not food. Photo: Tayane Dalazen // Instagram
No matter what species it comes from, a shark bite is nothing to scoff at. Though some types of shark are commonly thought of as relatively harmless, a Brazilian lawyer, surfer and influencer found out the hard way that they can still pack a punch. What’s more, she just shared a video with a crystal-clear view of exactly how it all went down.
The incident occurred while Tayane Dalazen was snorkeling in the Fernando de Noronha archipelago, located in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco. She was swimming upside down, along with a group of other freedivers, when a nurse shark approached her and latched on to her thigh.
“I had to wait because the shark was holding me, albeit only with suctions as it was a nurse shark,” she told TMZ. “I felt it shaking me by the leg. I thought I could not put my hand there, because it could rip it off. The guide had to hit it so it would let me go.”
Footage of the bite first emerged soon after, but it was grainy video, obscured by the cameraman scrambling to respond to the situation. Recently, the influencer posted a much clearer depiction of the series of events, along with a message about the attack itself.
“I believe it’s important to clarify one point: diving with nurse sharks is a common activity in many parts of the world and involves a species known for its non-aggressive behavior, which does not prey on humans,” she wrote in the caption “What happened was an isolated incident, outside the expected pattern for this species.”
It looks like this won’t be the end of her capitalizing on the animal encounter, either. “I also took part in a Discovery Channel documentary (Shark Week), in which the case will be analyzed by experts to better understand the circumstances of what happened,” she said.
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