An absolutely bonkers and terrifying video from the depths of the internet is absolutely terrifying. It shows the first-person view of a diver under the sea in a protective shark cage. With the cameras rolling, an aggressive shark slams its head through an opening in the bars. Feverishly snapping its jaws at the diver, the shark never slows down.
The diver never feels the full wrath of the shark as the cage does enough to prevent the shark from attacking. By the time the cage gets pulled to the surface and the diver gets out though, the shark makes its way into the cage. The video concludes with the bloodied shark escaping back into the ocean from inside the cage. The shark exits through the same hatch the diver used to climb out just moments before.
A Brief History Of The Shark Cage
In 1964, Rodney Fox was competing in the South Australian Spear Fishing Championship. He had just stuck a nice grouper when a shark tore into the side of him. “I thought I’d been hit by a train,” Rodney said in an article by Adventure.com “My chest was clamped, like in a vice. I was a bone in a dog’s mouth.”
He gauged the shark in the eyes with his fingers until it released its grip on him. Just as he made his mangled way to the surface, he looked down and saw the up surging jaws of a shark coming straight at him. He kicked hard with his flipper and hit the shark in the face. The shark veered off course and instead grabbed the dive box with the grouper that Fox had belted to his waist. The shark dove with the catch, pulling Fox back down into the depths with it. He started to accept that he was about to drown when the shark’s teeth severed the line that was dragging him under. He then floated to the surface like a leaf.
It took 462 stitches to fix his shredded torso, all the way from his shoulder to his waist. He also had shattered ribs, a collapsed lung, and a ruptured spleen. A large shark tooth remains embedded in his wrist.
Rodney Fox Invents Cage To Come Face To Face With Fears
Similar to how pro surfer Bethany Hamilton found solace and closure by getting back on her surfboard after a shark ripped her arm off, Rodney Fox invented the shark cage to face his fears. He would soon design the first modern shark diving cage in history. By the 1970s his invention had caught on around the world and it was featured in famous movies like Jaws and other documentaries. Rodney’s son Andrew still runs a shark diving expedition service in Australia that feature shark diving adventures with protective cages.