A harrowing encounter with a shark at a marina in the Bahamas has left Marlin Wakeman, a 24-year-old surfer and fisherman from Stuart, Florida, urging for a change in local practices that treat dangerous predators as mere spectacles. Wakeman was prepping a Garlington 61 sport fishing vessel for sea at the Flying Fish Marina in Long Island when he slipped into shark-infested waters and was promptly bitten by a seven-foot Caribbean reef shark, Wakeman described the chilling incident at a news conference at St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach, which was reported by Local 10 News.

According to Local 10 News, the young man's leap turned into a struggle for his life as he was suddenly submerged and felt a shark clamp down on his leg, the twenty sharks that "at all times" roam the marina bestowing a sense of danger, one that Wakeman and his friends had previously contemplated as a dire hypothetical. His quick reaction coupled with a rush of adrenaline allowed him to escape a potentially fatal second bite and clamber back onto the vessel, the perilous situation highlighting the marina's practice of attracting sharks by discarding fish carcasses, which Wakeman believes contributes to the sharks becoming almost too accustomed to human presence.

Following the attack, Wakeman's captain administered a crucial tourniquet to curb the bleeding, and the injured man was soon airlifted to Florida for emergency medical care. Dr. Robert Borrego, a trauma surgeon at St. Mary's, treated Wakeman for a 14-inch bite wound near a key artery and expressed concern over possible joint and bone injuries, concerns echoed in details obtained from a briefing with reporters at the hospital and recounted by ABC News.

Wakeman's parents, deeply shaken by the incident, extended their gratitude to everyone who stepped in to help, from the boat's crew to the medical professionals at the clinic and hospital. His father, Captain Rufus Wakeman, also a seasoned seafarer, resonated with the call for policy improvements concerning shark interactions in the Bahamas, suggesting alternative waste disposal methods that could prevent similar attacks; these included transporting carcasses off-island or dumping them out at sea instead of in the marina where, according to Local10 he said, “They need to maybe make some policy changes over there, not let people clean the fish in the marina ... put the bait, all of your carcasses in some buckets, and transport it to a different part of the island, or put it in a boat that’s going offshore tomorrow and dump out to sea,” stressing the gravity of such encounters, especially in zones where children and the elderly frequent.

Wakeman, who is projected to make a full recovery, remained resolute in his respect for the power of nature's apex predators, telling reporters, including those at ABC News, "They're an apex predator and if they bite you, it can be pretty ugly,"  while considering himself fortunate for the fortunate escape and acknowledging the potential for persistent fears, Wakeman surmised that a bit more caution in the future might spare others from a similarly harrowing experience.