A surfer from Florida’s so-called “Treasure Coast” has described his moments during a shark attack earlier this month.
Matt Picarelli told NBC affiliate WPTV that he was swimming at a beach on March 12 in Fort Pierce when he felt a shark bite him.
“It was a big animal next to me coming towards me and then once it bit me it bit my foot and immediately it left and it left very quickly,” said the resident of Stuart. “It all happened so fast it didn’t feel real at all. It was very surreal.”
Strangers intervened and helped him out of the water. A friend took him to a nearby hospital.
“I was also bleeding everywhere, so I had a lot of strangers helping me, giving me water, putting pressure on the wound,” he said. “Fifty stitches, torn tendon, chipped bone. Yeah…that didn’t look good.”
Picarelli is still recovering and will not be able to stand for six weeks before entering physiotherapy. He said the moment still replayed in his mind.
Tourists managed to see a brave dog.
“Every night I had nightmares about it,” he said. “I see sharks, whether I’m in the water or even in a room, they come towards me and they bite my leg, they bite my arm, they bite my side, they bite something and they bite me attack.”
Still, he said it could have been much worse. “I feel like I always have a positive mind. I’m an optimist,” he said. “For all the surfers out there, you know there’s a danger of the sharks being out there. We’re basically home.”
“I’ve been surfing all my life,” he added. “I’m a water man. I love the ocean. I’m there every day, so I can’t see myself not going back after that.”