WATCH: Great white shark breaks into cage with Hong Kong man inside

Cage diving is often touted as a safe way to get up close and personal with sharks, although it appears that one Hong Kong man had a closer encounter than normal when a great white shark crashed into his cage earlier this month.

The terrifying moment, which took place on Oct. 4, was documented in a video which unsurprisingly went viral after it was posted on Youtube last Thursday. The 1:37-minute-clip shows the juvenile great white being baited with tuna near a diving cage in the waters off Isla Guadalupe in Mexico.

While lunging for the tuna, the shark crashes into the cage and gets stuck inside with a lone diver, Hongkonger Chan Ming. Thanks to the quick thinking of the dive operator’s staff, who opened the hatch of the cage, the shark managed to free itself roughly 20 seconds later, but appeared to be bleeding from its gills.

Shanghai-based Chan, an experienced diver, soon climbs out of the cage unharmed and remarkably calm. The advertising executive later told The New York Times, that he didn’t “have time to get afraid” and got back in the water “the next day”.

Regarding the blood on the shark’s gills, the video’s uploader wrote on Youtube, “The blood could be from [the shark’s] thrashing in the metal cage, possibly the tuna, but it was evaluated by a biologist and determined to be a minor wound and the shark was spotted the next day totally fine.”

Jorge Cervera Hauser, a managing partner of the vessel Chan was diving from, said in a statement that “shark breaches of this magnitude are a one in a million occurrence.”

Hauser added that the company’s cages have since been reinforced and the “no bait” zone around the cages has also been extended.

Chan shared the statement on Facebook, calling the event “just an accident” and “no one’s falsch [sic]”. “The boat teams are professional,” he said. “They are my heroes.”

The ocean-loving Hongkonger said in another post that he feels “reborn” after the extraordinary incident. 

Check out some of the beautiful photos Chan took of the magnificent sharks he saw in Mexico: 


Got a tip? Send it to us at hongkong@coconuts.co


 



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