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Dolphins save surfer from becoming sharks bait
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of MSNBC
Posted: November 25th, 2007
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21689083
Surfer Todd Endris needed a miracle. The shark ... had hit him three times, peeling the skin off his back and mauling his right leg to the bone. Thats when a pod of bottlenose dolphins intervened, forming a protective ring around Endris, allowing him to get to shore, where quick first aid provided by a friend saved his life. The attack occurred ... at Marina State Park off Monterey, Calif. Truly a miracle, Endris [said]. [It] came out of nowhere. Maybe I saw him a quarter second before it hit me. But no warning. It was just a giant shark. The shark, estimated at 12 to 15 feet long, hit him first as Endris was sitting on his surfboard, but couldnt get its monster jaws around both surfer and surfboard. The second time, he came down and clamped on my torso sandwiched my board and my torso in his mouth, Endris said. That attack shredded his back, literally peeling the skin back, he said, like a banana peel. But because Endris stomach was pressed to the surfboard, his intestines and internal organs were protected. The third time, the shark tried to swallow Endris right leg, and he said that was actually a good thing, because the sharks grip anchored him while he kicked the beast in the head and snout with his left leg until it let go. The dolphins, which had been cavorting in the surf all along, showed up then. They circled him, keeping the shark at bay, and enabled Endris to get back on his board and catch a wave to the shore. No one knows why dolphins protect humans, but stories of the marine mammals rescuing humans go back to ancient Greece, according to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. The shark went on its way, protected inside the waters of the park, which is a marine wildlife refuge. Endris wouldnt want it any other way. I wouldnt want to go after the shark anyway, he said. Were in his realm, not the other way around.
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