CARL QUINTANILLA, co-host:
Back at 7:50. They have the scars that make forgetting impossible, but apparently they can forgive. A group of nine
shark attack
survivors are here in
New York
this week. They're pushing the
United Nations
to adopt measures to protect sharks. The unexpected advocates were brought together by the
Pew
Environment Group, and they're with us this morning:
Mike Coots, Debbie Salamone and Krishna Thompson.
Good morning to all
of you.
Group:
Good morning.
QUINTANILLA:
You all have similar experiences. I want to begin with you,
Mike
. You were body...
Mr. MIKE COOTS (Shark Attack Survivor Turned Shark Advocate):
Body boarding, yeah.
QUINTANILLA:
...body boarding off the coast of
Kauai
...
Mr. COOTS:
Yep
, yep.
QUINTANILLA:
...back in
1997
.
Mr. COOTS:
Yep. It was early morning. I had gone out with some buddies and paddled out. And nice little wave came, started paddling for it, and a large
tiger shark
came up, grabbed onto me, did the
rag doll
type thing real quick. Didn't really feel any pain, just a lot of pressure. It was over really fast. And caught a small little wave to the beach and my friend took my surf leash, made a tourniquet, rushed to the hospital, and about a week in the hospital through rehabilitation, got a prosthetic and back out surfing. Yeah.
QUINTANILLA:
Which took you a few months. Why then -- why protect this vicious predator, as we know them to be?
Mr. COOTS:
Well, after the attack, I mean, I was just going through
a bunch of stuff
and the
Pew Environment Group
had contacted me and kind of asked if I wanted to get into shark conservation and gave me some numbers and stuff, and figures and statistics, and I was just blown away. I mean, I -- it was like 70 million sharks a year.
And I
had no idea this was going on and felt kind of compelled, in my position, to do something and kind of turn a negative into a positive. And, you know,
Hawaii
, we're such an ocean-based thing, and I know the sharks are really crucial in what we're doing, and yeah.
QUINTANILLA:
Krishna
, you had a similar experience in the
Bahamas
, and you make the point that this is sort of what sharks do, right?
Mr. KRISHNA THOMPSON (Shark Attack Survivor Turned Shark Advocate):
Yes, right.
QUINTANILLA:
They're really only living on their instinct -- on their instinctive nature.
Mr. THOMPSON:
Yes, correct.
QUINTANILLA:
And does that make it easier to protect them despite what they've done to you?
Mr. THOMPSON:
Yes, definitely. But without a doubt, I mean, this was a terrible attack. I mean, I saw the shark coming towards me, I tried to get away. It swam between my legs and grabbed my left leg between my knee and my ankle, and I heard its teeth go grr right onto my leg.
QUINTANILLA:
You say it was like a cartoon, right? The sound was...
Mr. THOMPSON:
I wouldn't say that. It was -- it was -- it wasn't a cartoon.
QUINTANILLA:
You -- you've said the sound was like a cartoon, and you've used the
rag doll
description as well, right?
Mr. THOMPSON:
Yes. It shook me like a
rag doll
and I just had to tense myself up, try not to let water go up my nose. And what I did was I threw a punch...
QUINTANILLA:
Yeah.
Mr. THOMPSON:
...and then I took my hands and tried to release my leg from its jaws, and it worked.
QUINTANILLA:
Debbie
, we should just make a quick point on some of the practices that sharks are -- live with, and that is finning, using their fins for soup, and then basically letting them out into the open to bleed to death or die.
Ms. DEBBIE SALAMONE:
Yeah, up to 73 million sharks are killed this way each year. And now we have nearly 30 percent of all
shark species
are threatened or near threatened with extinction. So we need to...
QUINTANILLA:
We'll watch...
Ms. SALAMONE:
We need to end finning.
“ ”