REAL LIFE JAWS

American Snorkeler Attacked by Shark in the Caribbean

The Connecticut man was celebrating his 40th wedding anniversary when the attack occurred.

A Connecticut man celebrating his 40th wedding anniversary in the Bahamas ended up needing 26 stitches after a shark attacked him while snorkeling last Friday. John Schweizer, 69, was swimming with Caribbean reef sharks when one of them suddenly pulled him underwater and bit his left shin. He was treated by an emergency doctor aboard the cruise ship where he was vacationing with his wife, Marcy, and their two sons. “It was so fast, so immediate that you knew it happened. No doubt about it,” Schweizer told NBC Connecticut. His son, Tom, who was snorkeling alongside him, reportedly spotted the shark before his father did and screamed for help after seeing him get bitten. “We used many, many towels and tourniquets to hold and keep the blood at bay,” Schweizer said, describing the efforts to control the bleeding after he made it back aboard the cruise ship. He received stitches on board before being transported to a hospital in Miami, Florida, where he was treated and released the following day. When Schweizer returned to his hometown of Niantic, his neighbors welcomed him back wearing shark costumes. Shark attacks in the Caribbean are extremely rare, and most encounters with sharks in the region are harmless, according to TwistTour.