It wasn’t quite as dramatic as Captain Quint in the climatic scene of “Jaws”, but Hatteras Inlet Captain Rick Caton sure let out a yell when a black tip shark chomped on his leg while helping boat the biter.
Caton was at the wheel of his boat, Free Agent, Tuesday off Cape Point targeting bluefish and Spanish mackerel off the south side of the tip of Cape Hatteras.
On the north side of The Point, sharks could be spotted from the beach jumping wildly out of the water almost parallel to the rope marking the bird closure boundary but way out of casting range.
After one of the charters hooked up with a five-foot-long blacktip and got it to the boat, Caton came to the stern to help his mate get a second gaff in the shark and bring it on board.
That’s when things went wild. Shark Week wild.
After getting the biter to let go by stabbing it in the back of the head with a knife, Caton called for a bottle of Clorox bleach.
Sharks are notorious for having bacteria-filled mouths. The bleach set-off another round of shouts from Caton, who said that hurt as much as the bite itself.
Using a towel and Gorilla Tape to tightly wrap the wound, Caton sped back to Oden’s Dock in Hatteras village.
Caton had to wait to get treatment because the only medical clinic on the island in Avon was already closed for the day.
A friend who is a nurse was already headed home on the ferry to Ocracoke when Caton reached her on the phone. She came back across Hatteras Inlet and properly tended to Caton’s wound that’s about seven inches wide.
But he says he will have to get further treatment, because there still some teeth in the bone.
“This is what not to do when gaffing a shark,” Caton said afterwards. “The Clorox was the right thing to do, and always carry Gorilla tape.”
