Many people travel to the beach for relaxation and recuperation.
For one group of beachgoers in Florida, their day in the sun was anything but.
Tina Fey and her husband Josh traveled to Pensacola Beach from Texas to celebrate their anniversary, Fey told WKRG.
A friend of theirs pointed out into the water at a black fin two or three sandbars away from where the couple was relaxing, the outlet reported.
The shark continued to swim toward shore and beached itself in the shallow water, Fey said in a Sept. 14 Facebook post.
They called wildlife officials and lifeguards, but they were told there was nothing they could do for the ocean predator.
That is when they decided to take the situation into their own hands.
Grabbing at the shark’s tail and moving it back toward the water, other beachgoers joined the couple and tried to pull the shark back into deeper water.
The shark initially thrashed around, seemingly angry that it was being manhandled.
But as it was moved into deeper water, it calmly righted itself, then swam away.
“Thank you to the guys that helped us,” Josh Fey told WKRG. “You know, if it wasn’t for them, I would not be able to move her. She was every bit of 5 to 600 pounds; I would think. I couldn’t budge her; it took four of us to enter into the water. I hope everybody else that comes to beaches and sees a distressed animal like that, you know, with sea turtles or anything like that, that they help them out.”
Pensacola Beach is about 365 miles west of Jacksonville.
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