On a reef near Georgetown, Long Island, an island at the southern tip of the Bahama chain, I had been snorkeling with a friend trying to catch some Nassau Grouper for supper. Fresh grouper is always a treat I never got tired of. It was kind of late, getting close to 5:00 p.m. Sharks always start to appear around 5:00 pm. You rarely see them during the day. We were having a difficult time finding Grouper to spear and finally my friend managed to get a large one. I headed up to the dinghy and he followed slowly taking care not to lose the fish off his spear.

I had just climbed into the dinghy when he came zooming out of the water and I could see the shark clearly just a few feet behind him. I pulled him into the boat, but not before the shark tore the grouper off his spear, just a foot from his hand. My friend was quite shaken, and quite upset about losing supper.

About a week before, a more serious shark attack took place at Georgetown. A young boy was windsurfing and a hammer head shark, about 12' long, which had been seen cruising around the anchored boats for a few days, attacked the surfboard and caused the kid to be thrown off the board. Fortunately, the shark, finding the board not to his taste, took off, and left the boy alone. A serious bite mark could be seen in the board. The boy's parents were quite perturbed but glad he was OK.