This is the shocking moment a 220-pound shark sank its teeth into a snorkeller, leaving her with a grizzly six-inch wound on her side in the Maldives.
Carmen Canovas Cervello, 30, was diving at Vaavu Atoll in the island paradise nation with a pal when the eight-foot-long nurse shark lunged at her and clamped its jaws around her side.
Dramatic footage shows the creature circling the bikini-clad tourist before it suddenly turned and attacked her.
Amazingly, the woman decided to jump back in for a second dip immediately after she cleaned the wound left by the disgruntled nurse shark.
Cervello and friend Ibrahim Shafeeg, 37, an underwater photographer who captured the astonishing footage, had been swimming freely with the school of sharks for over 45 minutes before disaster struck.
Carmen Canovas Cervello, 30, who works as a nurse, found a set of shark teeth lodged into her side, leaving her with a gruesome bite mark
Cervello had been taking a dip in the ocean off the coast of the Maldives with friend Ibrahim Shafeeg, 37, an underwater photographer who captured the astonishing footage
Cervello was left with a gaping six-inch wide wound after a 220-pound nurse shark lodged its teeth into her
Cervello was left with a horrific would after the eight-foot-long nurse shark lunged at her and clamped its jaws around her side while she was diving in the Maldives
In the shocking footage, it appeared one shark decided that they were too close for comfort and showed its dominance by clamping its teeth down on Cervello’s shoulder and upper back.
Even though it was only for a brief moment, the determined creature left a sizable mark of around six inches in diameter on the diver’s body.
Mr Shafeeg captured the shocking attack unexpectedly as he was filming the sharks around him with his GoPro camera.
Both Mr Shafeeg and Ms Cervello immediately jumped out of the water to check the damage inflicted on her shoulder and back by the bite-happy creature.
Once out of the water near the Dhiggiri resort in Vaavu Atoll, the pair cleaned the wound while examining how severe it was.
Despite the attack, the daredevil duo felt as though the wound was given by the sharks as a warning for getting too close, as they believed the bite as only a minor injury that could have easily been a lot worse.
Amazingly, within seconds, the unfazed pair decided they would dive right back into the shark-infested waters once again to resume their diving experience.
Cervello didn’t feel as though she needed to seek any medical help or treatment, so the pair decided to continue snorkelling and diving with the sharks for days, leaving the bite to heal for itself.
Nurse sharks are common in the Vaavu Atoll region of the Maldives, as it is a common place for the sharks to seek food from the different tourist attractions surrounding the area.
Cervello didn’t feel as though she needed to seek any medical help or treatment, so the pair decided to continue snorkelling
Somewhat amazingly, the woman decided to jump back in despite being left with the awful teeth-marked wound
Ibrahim Shafeeg captured the shocking attack unexpectedly as he was filming the sharks around him with his GoPro camera
If provoked, nurse sharks can inflict a life-threatening bite due to their extremely sharp teeth and strong jaw
Nurse sharks are usually non-aggressive and have been known to swim away when approached. But if they are provoked in any way, their bite can be life-threatening due to their extremely sharp teeth and strong jaw.
According to reports before 2022, there were around 51 provoked and five unprovoked attacks from nurse sharks.
This was the first time Cervello had received a shark bite, but that hasn’t stopped the pair from diving head-first into the dangerous waters once again to experience being so up-close and personal with the sharks in their natural habitat.
‘We were in the shark bay at Vaavu Atoll diving with nurse sharks,’ Shafeeg said.
‘We decided to do a free dive trip to shark bay and snorkel inside a group of sharks there.
‘There were around ten nurse sharks, from 198-pounds to 220-pounds and over three metres wide.
‘After the shark bite, we thought nothing major about it as it was only a minor injury so we cleaned the wound and continued snorkelling at the same spot again.’
