The Coast Guard said they were in the waters near Fiji patrolling for illegal fishing, when they jumped into the ocean for a refreshing swim.
Coast Guard personnel were out for a leisurely swim when a huge shark approached them. Video shows a nearby sharpshooter open fire into the ocean to scare it away. Once they realized the presence of the 8-foot shark, the crew frantically swam to safety.
Several of the men and women scrambled up the ladder, and others swam to a rescue boat and were pulled to safety.
The sharpshooter fired warning shots only — there was no plan to kill the shark.
The Coast Guard said they were in the waters near Fiji patrolling for illegal fishing, when they jumped into the ocean for a refreshing swim. The protocol is for a safety boat to be launched with every swim and for a sharpshooter to be on the lookout for sharks.
In a statement, the Coast Guard said the shooter, "kept the shark from his shipmates with amazing accuracy."
"The shark would wave off with each burst [of gunfire] but kept coming back," it continued.
Finally, after all the crew members were safely out of the water, the shark swam away unhurt. One officer scraped his knee while climbing aboard the rescue boat — the wound was coincidentally right in the middle of his shark mouth tattoo.
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