If you ever find yourself in an encounter with a great white shark, your first instinct would probably be to seek more protection. This fisherman, though, had another idea.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the fisherman, Kevin Phan, had accidentally hooked a juvenile great white shark. Seeing the animal struggling, Phan ditched his clothes and jumped in the water to help it.
“The next thing I knew, one of the fishermen was half naked, stripped down to his underwear, and was in the water trying to get the hook out,” says witness Alexandra Garry.
Phan says he was attempting to catch a thresher shark, which are legal to fish in California.
“I wasn’t intentionally targeting white sharks, because I know the rules of California state law, you can’t target them at all,” Phan says. “When I saw the great white, my brain just clicked into the action, and I tried to free it as quickly as I could.”
Phan used scissors to cut the fishing line before pushing the shark back into the water with his own hands.
“It was a little bit scary, because I have never dealt with a white shark before and the teeth were a bit intimidating,” Phan says in the understatement of the year.
Luckily for all involved, the shark successfully swam away and Phan didn’t lose any limbs. No word about what happened to his clothes, though.