Jessie Arbogast', of Ocean Springs, Miss., was swimming at Gulf Islands National Seashore in the Florida Panhandle Friday evening when he was attacked by a 7-foot bull shark, which tore off his arm. Jessie's uncle, Vance Flosensier, of Mobile, Ala., wrestled the shark to shore after the attack.
DAVID ASMAN: ... Joining us now is Samuel Gruber, a marine biology professor at the University of Miami.
>> Thanks for coming Mr. Gruber let's talk about what it would take to wrestle a 7 foot shark.
>> Before I say that I would just like to say my heart goes out to the family. This is a rare and almost unheard of event, and for any individual like that young boy, it's a horrible experience and I just hope and pray that he will recover. But to get to your question, it's almost inconceivable that somebody could actually grab a shark like that -- a 200 pound bull shark, which has huge muscles and teeth …
DAVID ASMAN: Have you heard of this being done before?
>> This has happened from time to time because for some reason people forget the tremendous danger they are placing themselves in, and they have dragged them to shore and saved people.
DAVID ASMAN: Of course if it's an 8-year-old boy you want to do what you can to save him. Was this a fluke or a specific reason why the shark attacked the boy.
>> I think you can say it was a matter of the statistics. Once you get a number of people in the water with a number of sharks, there are bound to be accidents. My concern is that people will not believe that they should go swimming or enter the water and we'll get into a "jaws" phenomenon.
DAVID ASMAN: Well, folks are not staying out of the water but is there anything that Jesse could have done or his parents could have done to prevent the attack.
>> No, I don't believe so from everything I know … considering that the boy was not doing anything that you could consider incorrect. I think there was nothing they could have done.
DAVID ASMAN: All right.
>> And they did everything they could do … it was law of averages and we all share in the hope the boy recovers …
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