Man was taking speared fish back to boat when shark struck off Key West, police say
The man bitten by a shark while spearfishing off Key West Monday had just speared a fish and was taking it back to the boat when he was struck, according to a Monroe County Sheriff’s Office incident report.
Jose Angel Abreu Hernandez, 37, from Opa-locka, was swimming on Toppino Reef — a popular snorkeling and shallow scuba diving site located about five miles off Key West — around 3:40 p.m. when the bloody encounter happened, according to the report.
As he was swimming to the 25-foot Mako center console, the approximately 8-foot bull shark bit Abreu Hernandez twice in the lower left leg, his friend, David Cruz Siles, who was on the boat, told deputies.
The shark tried to bite Abreu Hernandez’s torso, but only ripped into the rash guard shirt he was wearing, the report states.
Siles brought his friend aboard the boat and rushed him to shore at the Stock Island Lobster Company on Maloney Avenue.
Monroe County Fire Rescue paramedics flew him to a Miami-Dade County hospital for treatment. His condition as of Tuesday was not immediately known.
The Miami Herald was unable to contact Siles or Abreu Hernandez.
