A surfer from South Carolina recalled the frightening moment he suffered a shark bite that "felt like a bear trap" on his face at a Florida beach many consider to be the shark bite capital of the world.
Mark Summerset, 38, was surfing at New Smyrna Beach when he finished riding a wave, jumped off his board and was bitten in the face so fast that he didn't even see the shark.
"I felt this pressure on my face," he told NBC News correspondent Sam Brock on TODAY Sept. 18. "It felt like a bear trap. I think he just ripped down a little bit. But sharks have five rows of teeth, so he tore me up pretty bad, and he let go.”
The bite stretched from Summerset's forehead to his jaw and left him with 18 stitches.
"Pain is still here," he told TODAY. "It still hurts. I am in recovery right now.”
The Daytona Beach News-Journal reports that the incident happened on Sept. 12.
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There have been five reported shark incidents at New Smyrna Beach in the last four months. Summerset told Brock he spotted around 10 sharks the day before he was bitten, and aerial shots taken after the attack on Summerset showed a number of sharks in the water.
"I spoke to my girlfriend, and I was like, 'This is crazy,'" he said. "All the sharks here, something’s going on. I don’t know if it was intuition or something, but I felt like I was gonna get bit.”
He told Brock that a DNA swab was taken from his laceration so marine officials could determine what type of shark bit him.
There have been 32 shark attack bites in the U.S. this year, and 17 of them have been in Florida, according to Trackingsharks.com. There have been seven shark bites in Florida's Volusia County alone, which includes New Smyrna Beach, according to The Daytona Beach News-Journal.
Summerset believes the fact that he was wearing a gold chain while surfing may have contributed to the bite.
"It thought I was a fish, the scales on the fish," he said. "And he grabbed my face because of that, I believe. I’m almost 100% certain of that.”
Summerset told Brock that he thought about continuing his surf session after being bitten, but the need for medical attention prevented him from going back in the ocean.
"If I die surfing, I die a happy man," he said. "That’s something that I will do and I will carry with me for the rest of my life, and I will never stop surfing.”
While experts emphasize shark attacks are rare and that sharks almost always try to steer clear of humans, there are safety precautions you can take while out in the ocean.
Swimming in groups, avoiding areas containing sharks' natural prey, and staying in shallow, clear water are all recommended by experts.
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