After enduring a terrifying interaction with a shark at sea, a diver has revealed her best tips to help others avoid an attack.
Kayleigh Nicole Grant, a diver who runs the Kaimana Ocean Safari in Hawaii, recently took to TikTok via her account @mermaidkayleigh to post a horrifying face-off between her and a shark while she was out swimming in the ocean.
In the clip, you can clearly see the enormous beast following Kayleigh while she slowly backed away, before having to physically push the shark away with her hand as it got horrifyingly close to her.
"If you panic and swim away from sharks, they will most likely continue to follow you due to their prey drive," she wrote in the text overlay.
"Instead, stand your ground, make eye contact and push them away if absolutely necessary," she continued.
Have a look at the clip below:"Sharks have natural instincts and splashing, panicking, and swimming away from them can trigger their prey drive," she wrote in the caption. "It’s better to stay calm, stand your ground, make eye contact, and if necessary push them away."
Since it was posted last month, the clip has already received over 16 million views, with thousands of users heading to the comments to express their utter shock at the interaction.
"Bro really said 'stop, this isn't you' to a shark," wrote one user.
"I think if a shark was following me I’d forget how to breathe," added another while a third chimed in stating: "Even a shark understands a rejection, unlike other people..."
Ain't that the truth?
Kayleigh's advice reflects that of experts, with the Florida Museum explaining that one should "Refrain from excess splashing, particularly in a single spot. Sharks can hear the low-frequency sounds from splashing and may investigate to see if there is a fish/prey in distress."
The Victorian Fisheries Authority also added that you should also "Use whatever you have at your disposal (surfboard, dive gear, fishing equipment) to avoid using your bare hands to attack the shark," as opposed to your hand, but it may be used as a last resort if you can't access anything else.
"If you must use your hands, concentrate on attacking the eyes, nose and gills," the Authority added.
The Florida Museum also explained that shark bites can come provoked or unprovoked, depending on the situation, though the latter is more common.
"Provoked bites occur when a human initiates interaction with a shark in some way," they wrote in their resources. "These include instances when people are bitten after harassing or trying to touch sharks, bites occurring while unhooking or removing a shark from a fishing net, and so forth."
"Unprovoked bites are defined as incidents in which a bite on a live human occurs in the shark’s natural habitat with no human provocation of the shark,' they continued. "These represent the most natural examples of shark behavior and are our most widely used data category in research.
"These events include; mistaken identity hit and run during low visibility conditions, investigation, and on infrequent occasions predation," the museum added.
So there you have it. Of course, I'm just going to follow my own advice and stay clear of shark-infested waters.
