NICK EICHER, HOST: How would you like it if you were snorkeling in the warm shallow waters of Florida and felt something ripping at your ankle? Not good, right?
Well, Heather West didn’t like it, either. She was snorkeling in Dry Tortugas National Park when a second rip followed that first rip and she pretty quickly realized she had a decision to make.
WEST: I knew that if he got a third rip in there, I wasn’t going to have a foot left. So I immediately sat up and leaned forward, and I just started punching with both my fists and - so he lets go.
If there’s one thing a shark doesn’t like is a punch in the face. So it let go of her foot and swam off. Then she screamed for her friends to help her out of the water.
What a relief to look down and see that her foot was still attached!
WEST: You know, I knew it was a battle for the foot and one of us was going to win and one of us was going to lose, and I honestly didn’t expect that I was going to be the winner of this. So I was pretty happy.
Let that be a warning to other sharks: don’t mess with Heather West! She has fought a shark and lived to tell the tale.
It’s The World and Everything in It.
WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.
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