‘It felt like a bear trap,’ North Carolina surfer recounts horrific shark attack on his face

A South Carolina surfer has shared his terrifying experience of being attacked by a suspected shark on his face.

Mark Summerset, 38, was surfing on September 12 when he felt a sudden and intense pressure on his face. He said it felt like a bear trap clamping down on his cheek. He believes the sea creature that bit him had five rows of teeth, as it left him with a deep and bloody wound.

“I felt this pressure on my face,” he told NBC News.

"It felt like a bear trap. I think he just ripped down a little bit. But sharks have five rows of teeth, so he tore me up pretty bad, and he let go.”

Mark was surfing early in the morning when the attack happened. He said he jumped off his board and saw something under the water that bit his face, but he could not identify it at the time.

According to The Daytona Beach News-Journal, he was transported to AdventHealth hospital in New Smyrna Beach due to a two-inch laceration on his right cheek.

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After the attack, helicopter footage showed sharks swimming in the area where Mark was bitten.

Mark said he had a DNA swab taken from his cut to find out what kind of creature attacked him. He said he had seen about 10 sharks in the area the day before the incident.

He thinks the shark mistook his necklace for a fish and grabbed his face. “It thought I was a fish, the scales on the fish,” he said. "And he grabbed my face because of that, I believe. I’m almost 100% certain of that.”

He said he still feels pain in his face from the bite, but he is not deterred from surfing again.

“If I die surfing, I die a happy man. That’s something that I will do and I will carry with me for the rest of my life, and I will never stop surfing.”

The attack on Mark was one of 32 shark bites recorded this year, including seven in Florida’s Volusia County.

In another shark-related story, a Connecticut couple rescued a baby shark that was trapped in a work glove last week. Deb and Steve Dauphinais spotted a juvenile shark measuring 16 inches, with its head trapped inside a work glove resting at the bottom of approximately 35 feet (10 meters) of water.

Deb Dauphinais, an experienced dive instructor, initially believed the shark to be lifeless. But, upon detecting signs of movement, she signaled her husband to assist her in liberating the creature.

“He came over and did his own little double-take,” she said.

She said her husband pulled on the glove, which seemed to be stuck to the shark’s head, but it eventually came off.

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