‘I Lost a Lot of Blood’: Man, 66, Reveals How He Fought off Bull Shark Attack During Vacation Swim

A man is opening up about being attacked by a shark while on vacation on the Caribbean island of Tobago.

In a new interview with the BBC, published Wednesday, Feb. 4, Peter Smith, 66, opened up about being bitten by a bull shark while on vacation with his friends and wife Joanna, 64, in Tobago in April 2024.

“The conditions were perfect for a swim,” he recalled. “I dived into the waves, swam out no more than 20 feet, and stood waist-deep in the water.”

The retired IT director from Hertfordshire, England, added he suddenly felt “a very heavy object hit my leg.”

“I look down, and there’s a shark – and it’s big,” he said, adding that the shark looked around 10 feet long.

After seeing the shark’s teeth on his leg, Peter decided that he was going to fight the fish to avoid being dragged underwater.

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“I start punching the shark. To be honest, I don’t know what I was trying to do, but I was hitting it,” he said to the outlet. “I can honestly say I’ve never hit anything as hard as I hit that shark.

He went on to say that the shark began attacking his left arm and then his stomach.

“The situation got serious really fast. I lost a lot of blood,” Peter said.

Friends John and Moira, who were in the sea with him at the time, also helped Peter fight off the shark, per BBC.

After a while, the shark finally let up, enabling Peter to be rescued from the water.

“I remember going into the water and seeing his terrible injuries. I could see bones, it was just awful,” his wife, Joanna, told the BBC. “And somebody said, ‘Get her away from here.'”

Peter’s injuries included deep lacerations on his stomach, a large bite on his arm, and a big bite on his upper thigh.

He was then taken to the only hospital in Tobago, but revealed he started to feel pain while in the ambulance.

“I’m screaming, I’m crying, losing a lot of blood and losing consciousness,” he said. “People are screaming at me to stay awake.”

Joanna said she didn’t know if Peter would survive the attack, as she described him as looking “so pale.”

After the hospital ran out of blood, Peter was transferred to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida.

He then underwent multiple surgeries, including having a shark membrane put over a wound to help with a skin graft.

“Then they laughed. So we were saying, ‘Well, what’s funny?’ And they said, ‘The membrane is made from shark’.” Peter recalled. “So I have a piece of shark in my leg.”

While Peter had to learn how to walk again, he still currently has no feeling in his fingers and struggles with grip, he told the BBC.

However, the shark attack survivor said he was grateful to still have all his limbs.

Peter was the first and only shark attack victim in Tobago’s history, according to the International Shark Attack File, which is cited by the BBC.