[MORTARDUDE]

Houston fisherman, posing with shark, gets bitten

By RICHARD STEWART

Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle

FREEPORT -- A Houston man was transported by LifeFlight helicopter today to a Houston hospital after a shark he had just caught turned around and bit him on the arm.

"He wanted to have a picture taken with it," said Susan Scott, at Bridge Bait on the Intercoastal Canal and Highway 332. When he held it up for the camera, the shark turned around and bit his right arm, she said. Scott said friends brought the bleeding man into the boat landing this afternoon.

"He was all wrapped up in a towel and blood was going everywhere," she said.

People who were gathered put the man, who was not identified, on a table and waited for the helicopter to pick him up. It arrived about 20 minutes later.

He and his friends apparently landed the 3 1/2-foot bull shark about a 1 1/2 miles offshore, Scott said.