Woman bitten by shark while posing for Instagram photo
An Instagram model has been bitten by a shark during an impromptu photo shoot.
Katarina Zarutskie was holidaying in the Bahamas, with her boyfriend and his family last month when she decided to go swimming with nurse sharks in the marina, NBC reports.
The 19-year-old said the swim wasn’t organised by a company and while her boyfriend was “freaking out”, she reassured him it was fine because she surfs at home in California.
She had her boyfriend’s dad take photos of her in the water with the sharks, so she could post them to her social media account which has more than 15,000 followers.
But while Ms Zarutskie floated with the beasts swimming around her, one of the sharks latched onto her arm and dragged her underwater.
The teen said she felt the shark’s teeth sink her wrist but managed to rip her arm free of the mouth as quickly as she could.
Ms Zarutskie then swam to shore as her arm bled.
The injury cut her vacation with her boyfriend’s family short. She flew back to Florida the next day after learning her wound had a high risk of infection.
“(The doctors) now believe that I still have pieces of the shark teeth in my arm and I will forever have a scar,” said Mr Zarutskie said.
“I am so fortunate that I still have my arm and my life.”
She added she’s concerned the scarring could affect her modelling career.
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A Perth woman was also attacked by nurse sharks last month with vision of the attack caught on camera.
Melissa Brunning was hand-feeding a group of tawny nurse sharks on the back of a boat in Dugong Bay, in WA’s far north, when one latched on and almost took off her finger.
The vision shows Ms Brunning right at the water’s edge as one of the sharks swims in front of her.
She suddenly topples into the water screaming as on-lookers rush to help her.
