Florida man who survived shark attack in the Bahamas tells how he stayed cool: ‘Nothing will happen to me’

A Florida man who was bitten by multiple sharks after slipping and falling from a fishing pier while working in the Bahamas remained calm not only during the terrifying experience, but also as he recalled the attack to members of the media last week.

“Nothing will happen to me,” said Marlin Wakeman, who lives in the city of Stuart on Florida’s Atlantic coast, during a press conference at the West Palm Beach hospital where he was recovering from the April 26 attack.

Wakeman, 24, told reporters, including one from the Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK, that he was working on a charter boat at a marina when he accidentally fell into shark-infested waters at low tide at the Flying Fish Marina on Long Island and was attacked by two sharks.

At least 20 sharks were swimming around him when he hit the water and “ended up in a shark cave,” he recalls of the gruesome scene.

“I just thought, ‘Hey man, I really don’t want to die right now, this isn’t it,'” he coolly recalled the horrific experience, drawing giggles from media representatives and other participants at the press conference.

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When the first shark pulled him under water

As he clung to the boat’s cockpit, the first shark grabbed his leg and pulled him underwater, Wakeman said.

“I panicked for a moment and then took control of my surroundings,” he recalled calmly.

When the shark released its grip, Wakeman resurfaced. And just as he managed to cling to the deck of the boat, a second shark tried to graze his right shoulder with its teeth. After that, he said, he pulled himself up to get into the boat.

While he remained calm with his leg elevated, Wakeman said, a sailing guide saw his injuries, freaked out and yelled, “He’s bleeding to death … and I was like, ‘Hey, can we get this guy off me?’ That scares me a little bit.”

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A boat captain, a tourniquet and a blackout

The captain of the boat heard Wakeman’s cries for help from inside the boat. When he saw him, he tied a tourniquet around his leg, pushed him in a wheelbarrow to a van and took him inside, where someone stuffed gauze into the wound on his leg, after which he fainted from the pain.

Wakeman was taken to the nearest medical facility and later flown to Florida for surgery.

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Shark bite narrowly missed an artery in the leg

Dr. Robert Borrego, Wakeman’s surgeon, said the shark’s bite narrowly missed a femoral artery in his leg, which could have led to his bleeding to death.

After examining the bite wound, the surgeon estimated that the shark that bit him on the leg was about 7 feet long. Wakeman suspects that he was attacked by Caribbean reef sharks.

Borrego said he expects Wakeman to make a full recovery. He had his stitches removed last week and said the shark attack victim is “healing well.”

Wakeman said he will be more cautious when working near the water from now on. He said he had “gotten a little lazy” after moving fishing gear back and forth between the dock and the boat, which makes regular charter trips from Stuart to the Bahamas.

He said he jumped three feet before falling instead of carefully approaching the boat.

“I wasn’t really scared at that moment. I just knew I had to get out as quickly as possible,” said the 24-year-old. “Luckily, I’m here to tell the story.”

Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter at USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X at @nataliealund.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Florida fisherman shares his story of survival after shark attack in the Bahamas