HE BETTER SWITCH TO TROUT FISHING

‘Lost my goddamn pinky!’: Fisherman curses in chilling video as traumatized shark BITES OFF finger

Brett Reeder was attempting to corral a 6-foot lemon shark he had just hooked when the incident happened 

 

By Fatima Kamil 

 

 

meaww 
Jul 23, 2022

 

 

 

"OK lil fella, let's get this ... Owwwwww, that hurts ... hey, where's my finger?"

 

                                                                     Lemon shark

 

 A Florida fisherman’s angling excursion took a horrific turn after a shark chomped off one of his fingers while he was trying to unhook it on July 21. A 10-second clip of the angler’s accidental amputation has gone viral on social media garnering over 11 million views on TikTok.

 

Brett Reeder was shark fishing in the Content Keys, just about a few miles south of Miami. As seen in the now viral video, the incident occurred when the fisherman was attempting to fence in a 6-foot lemon shark that he had just hooked while standing on the edge of his boat. Brett, according to a follow-up video posted by his wife, Mandy, had to drive the boat all the way back to shore following the bite -- while bleeding profusely. He was then immediately airlifted to the hospital and underwent surgery.

 

"I got unlucky"

Brett described the attack in the TikTok clip. He said, “I’m the guy who possibly lost his finger to a lemon shark. We’d hooked our last shark of the day [a 6-foot lemon shark], and I needed my hook back, so I tried to get a hold of him to get my hook back and got unlucky.”

In the 10-second clip now going viral on social media, Brett can be seen trying to put the predator while on a boat, as Brett's family looks on in anticipation. Suddenly, the shark clamps down on his finger and does an apparent death roll, much to the shock and disbelief of the onlookers.

A pained Brett cries on camera, “F – – k! I lost my goddamn pinky! F – – k!” as he held up his now amputated palm while blood gushed out over to the boat deck.  Brett described how the lemon shark spun around and caught the top of his hand and started twisting after getting hold of his little finger. "I could’ve sworn I heard a pop,” Brett recalled.

His wife was reportedly able to apply a tourniquet to his dangling digit as they headed back to shore. He was then airlifted to a hospital — received a unit of blood in the helicopter to counteract his falling blood pressure — and immediately underwent surgery to reattach his pinky. It remains unclear if medics were able to save his hand; however, Reeder reported that he’ll know if the operation was a success later this week.

Meanwhile, Brett's witty TikTok audience proved his pinky predicament was ripe for punning. His followers humorously made fun of the situation  One user wrote, “Can you pinky promise u lost it?”, while another wrote, “Do it again, you still got 9 trys [sic].”

One user even wondered if Brett could use the “Baby Shark” song in the clip. The idea gained many supporters with multiple users autotuned the footage with a catchy song in a follow-up TikTok post. The fisherman was quite amused by such comments and wrote, “Y’all got me dead.”

The incident comes amid an increase in shark attacks and sightings along the Eastern Seaboard. The past month saw six attacks off of New York’s Long Island alone, with the latest happening on Wednesday, July 16 after Max Haynes, 16, was bitten on the foot while surfing near Kismet Beach on Fire Island.