Dangers of the Deep

During the Discovery Channel's "Shark Week"ť programming, Don White and his son joked about the remote possibility of encountering a shark during their upcoming deep-sea fishing excursion off the North Carolina coast. Neither could have imagined that, weeks later, White would appear in numerous television interviews broadcast nationwide to relate his harrowing experience of being attacked by a bull shark.

It had been a sweltering August day of fishing in the Atlantic Ocean off Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina. Forty-five-year-old Don White, his son Donnie, and several friends decided to take a dip in the ocean to cool off before heading back to shore.  As White swam toward the boat's ladder, he felt sudden severe pressure on his right foot. Trying not to panic, he cried out, "Sharks! Everybody out of the water!"

Donnie and his cousin hauled the injured man onto the boat while four aggressive bull sharks swarmed around the blood Don had left behind in the water. The young men fastened a belt around Donâ€™s leg as a tourniquet and raced 13 miles to shore.

White received 120 stitches and spent a night in the hospital. As a souvenir of his brush with death, his surgeon presented him with the razor-sharp tooth he had removed from White's foot. "Here's proof that it wasn't just another fish tale," White quipped as he held the tooth in front of TV cameras.

White's was the third shark attack along the North Carolina coast over the course of that summer. The fishermen had learned a valuable lesson about the dangers of casting themselves like bait into the briny deep.









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