VIDEO: Man Catches Shark With Bare Hands

A young man posted a video of himself diving into the water at Oyster Plant Park, Washington and catching a shark with his bare hands on Wednesday.

Read: WATCH: Sharks Surprise Tourists In Shallow Water At Florida Beach

The video showed the man, identified by his Instagram account as Alex Winn, standing on docks and preparing to jump in the water where a small shark was swimming. He was surrounded by a crowd of screaming people. After he entered the water, he grabbed the shark with his bare hands as the people on the docks cheered him on. A dog tried to move closer to Winn, still in the water with the shark. Winn then threw the shark onto the dock, causing the shark to writhe around because sharks are fish that rely on their gills to breathe underwater. Several dogs appeared to try and approach the shark as Winn’s friends recorded the events.

After Winn grabbed the shark from the docks, the video ended. He captioned the video, “I let it go right after the vid and made sure he swam off.” Since he posted the video 20 hours ago, it has received over 13,000 views and over 1,000 likes. The type of shark shown in the video is unknown.

Winn received many comments on his video, with Instagram users writing things such as, “You are a legend,” “he could have eaten it but he let it go” and “Post this on facebook so everyone in the world can share it.” Several users commented wondering if Winn let the shark back into the water. One user said, “This is only cool if you put it back man, I hate to be that guy.”

One of the people present on the dock commented on Winn’s Instagram, saying, “Of course he put it back. We aren’t savages was out of the water for like 30-45 seconds.”

In a 2015 National Geographic article titled “How to Rescue a Great White Shark on the Beach,” Greg Skomal, shark expert with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, explained that the first step to saving a shark is putting water on its body to resuscitate its gills. In the instance he described, the great white shark, which washed up on Chatham, Massachusetts shores, struggled to breathe for an hour. Sharks are a type of fish, therefore they rely on gills to breathe underwater.

“Despite its rarity, scientists follow a pretty standard protocol when dealing with beached sharks,” Skomal said as reported by National Geographic.

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It was reported that the amount of time sharks can last out of water varies. Factors such as the species of the shark, the strength of its gills and the weight of the shark contribute to whether or not it can be saved. According to Skomel, the shark would have died if its gills were dry and it was not breathing.

The users who commented on Winn’s video asking about the shark’s health had a valid reason to be worried. If the shark had stayed out of water long enough for its gills to dry it could have died.