San José – A Mexican marine biologist attacked by a shark on September 27 on Coco Island, in the Pacific of Costa Rica, said the incident was a “defense bite” of the animal.
In a video that accompanied a statement from the One Ocean Worldwide coalition broadcast on Monday, the biológo Mauricio Hoyos narrated how that moment was in a site of the island known as dirty rock, 40 meters deep. That day, he said, approached a Galapagos shark female to place a transmitter that can be detected with receptors.
“At the time I placed this device, the female reacted, what she did simply was to turn and immediately come to me with one, I call her a defense bite”the scientist said. “It was simply that she felt hurt, she felt vulnerable, she saw an animal near her that hurt her and what she did simply was defending.”
Hoyos suffered head and face wounds. His transfer involved units of the Fire Department of Costa Rica took about 36 hours, a 550 -kilometer route between the island and the port of Puntarenas.
That bite, which Hoyos compared to that of any dog that defends himself, hurt him on his face, removed the viewer and also torn the air supply hoses to dive.
“The truth is that I was not so scared by the encounter itself, because automatically I knew that what I identified as simply a defensive bite, not as an attack”he reiterated.
He said that after that he tried to climb as slowly with the little air he had to avoid a possible decompression. When the captain of the small boat was expected to the surface that transported them and had to wait a bit to the other diver that accompanied them.
From the port of Puntarenas he was transferred to a hospital in San José, the capital of the country, where surgical washing was performed, since the animal’s bite had caused the presence of bacteria in his wounds.
Once the infection was controlled, doctors were able to perform reconstructive surgery on Hoyos face, which after a week has evolved normally, he said.
The Mexican scientist will travel in the next few hours in the company of a nurse to continue recovery in his country.