It’s something you’d never think could happen to you until you’re sitting in the back of a pickup truck, Instagramming yourself as you’re being rushed to the hospital with leg wound so gruesome and gory that it’s nauseating to watch. “Never in a million years would I have thought I would be attacked by a shark,” said Braxton Rocha in an exclusive interview with Hawaii News Now. “I was just at the wrong place at the wrong time.” Wrong place at the wrong time is right, as there were several signs and an eerily conspicuous gut feeling warning both Braxton and his fishing partner not to enter the ocean that day. Both divers admittedly ignored those signs.
While spearfishing off the north shore of the Big Island of Hawaii last Sunday, Braxton was mauled by what was believed to be a 13-foot tiger shark. Ironically enough, Braxton and fishing partner Shannon had been joking about sharks before entering the water. Despite poor fishing conditions and the fact that it’s tiger shark pupping season, Braxton and Shannon entered the water anyway.
At the end of the day, this incident serves as a reminder not to ignore the warning signs. They aren’t issued arbitrarily. As this incident teaches us, the consequences can be disastrous. Braxton is simply lucky to be alive. Watch as he recalls the horrific incident in graphic detail for the very fist time since the attack.
