Shark attacks
A scary encounter for a local diver. He was bitten by a shark while spearfishing.

He's a professional, which proves shark attacks can happen to anyone.

CBS 12 learned the victim works for a charter company that offers shark dives.

This was their day off, and some employees and their friends set out for a day of fun, that turned chaotic.

"It was a young guy come off on a stretcher with his hand all bandaged up and you could see the blood," said Maureen Castagno, a bystander.

Bystanders watched in horror, as the shark bite victim got off a boat called Shark Addicts, and was taken away by paramedics.

"It looked pretty bad," Castagno said.


"One guy got in the gurney and they wheeled him off and he had a beach towel wrapped around his hand and it was all bloody," said Trish Wright, another bystander.

Patrons at the Square Grouper, a waterfront bar and restaurant in Jupiter where the man was rushed to the dock about 4 this afternoon, describe the victim as a man in his 20's.

According to his boss, the victim works as a safety diver for Shark Addicts, a dive company based in Tequesta that offers shark dives.

He says this was their day off, and a couple of Shark Addicts employees and some of their friends went spearfishing in the Bahamas.

He says the victim speared a fish on a shallow reef and was pulling it in about 3 on Friday afternoon, when a reef shark about 5 feet long came up and tried to take the fish.

In the process, the shark bit the victim on the hand.

"Scary, you know. I mean those guys are out there, tiger sharks, bull sharks, doing it all the time. He was bound to get bit," said Andrew Harsin, a Square Grouper employee.

His hand dripping blood, the victim climbed onto the boat and his friends rushed him back 60 miles to Jupiter, where paramedics were waiting at the dock.

"It makes you kinda wonder, you know, to go in the water," said Castagno.

Chris Cameron, the owner of Shark Addicts, would not release the victim's name. He says he was taken to Jupiter Medical Center. The good news, he says, is the victim won't lose his hand and is going to be okay.