He was pulled onto the boat after a shark bite. The shark came with him, video shows

A man was boating off the coast of Marathon, Florida, when he was bitten by a shark, according to Newsflare, but when he was hauled back up on the boat, the shark came up with him.

No matter what he tried, the shark would not let go, Maccarty told News4Jax. The shark stayed on his stomach for about 30 minutes and it even tried to pull him under water.

“(The shark) hit me hard,” Ervin Maccarty told Newsflare of the Sept. 2 incident. “It knocked the breath out of me so I had to get up for air but I felt the shark biting and trying to tear me open.

“I thought I would drown,” he said. “I got up and saw the boat had floated away and everyone yelling that the shark had bit me.”

Maccarty said a boater had shot a grouper with a spear gun but that it was stuck in a hole, according to Newsflare, and Maccarty swam down to free it.

That’s when he said the shark bit him.

“It wouldn't let go so I had to hold it tight with both hands ..., and I had to get up for air with the shark pulling me down,” said Maccarty.

The video shows Maccarty being hauled onto the boat with the shark still biting his abdomen.

“He didn't get your penis, did he?” said one bystander in the video, which shows another person using a knife to free the shark.

“Don't cut me,” Maccarty told the person with the knife. "Don't bleed him out on me!”

Crew members managed to free the shark from Maccarty.

University of North Florida shark researcher Dr. Jim Gelsleichter told News4Jax that while nurse sharks are generally gentle, they will bite if they’re provoked or they think you are food.

This story was originally published December 27, 2017 at 8:23 PM with the headline "He was pulled onto the boat after a shark bite. The shark came with him, video shows."