A video has captured the dramatic moment when Florida beachgoers came together to save a massive shark stranded on the sand. The incident took place on Thursday in Pensacola, on the Sunshine State's Gulf Coast when a group of beachgoers spotted a 10-foot Mako shark washed ashore. They soon got to work, wrestling the shark back into the water and after several attempts, successfully managed to push it back into the sea.
The video was recorded by Tina Fey, a Texas woman who was vacationing at Pensacola Beach to celebrate her wedding anniversary with her husband. The couple was hanging out on the beach with friends when they spotted the Mako shark in the water.
''It just showed up while we were swimming. I just so happened to beach itself right in front of us. We took action to get him back in the water since the wildlife people and lifeguards told us there was not they could do!! So we did our best to try to save him,'' she captioned the video on Facebook.
Watch the video here:
The video starts with a mako shark, with jagged, razor-sharp teeth, lying on the beach as three men try to drag it holding its tail. The marine predator gets agitated in the process causing the men to step back. However, once the shark calmed down, they grabbed the shark's tail fin again.
''Babe, it's too dangerous, don't be doing that,'' the woman filming the encounter can be heard saying. The men eventually flipped the shark over and pointed it back towards the ocean, as the crowd cheered and roared, hailing the rescuers.
"It was very exciting, adrenaline was pumping for sure, I was scared with my husband being in the water with it. We knew we had to act fast for a better chance of survival,'' Tina Fey told Insider.
Notably, mako sharks are classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. They can reach up to 12 feet in length and 1,200 pounds in weight. According to AmericanOceans.org, mako sharks have one of the strongest bites in the world.
