Biologist bitten in head by shark hopes to meet animal again

Mauricio Hoyos still remembers the pressure the jaws of a female Galapagos shark over 3 meters (10 ft) long put on his skull.

The animal lunged at him with surprising speed, giving him just enough time to lower his head in a last-ditch effort to protect his jugular vein.

“When he closed his jaw, I felt the pressure of the bite, and I think a second later he opened it again and let me go,” Hoyos told BBC Mundo from his home in Baja California, Mexico, a month after surviving the incident.

Hoyos, a marine biologist with more than 30 years of experience studying sharks in their natural habitat, was on a research trip in Costa Rica when he was attacked by a shark in September.

The man, whose face still bears the scars of the attack less than two months later, describes his recovery as “incredible” and even says he hopes to meet his attacker again.

According to Hoyos, what happened to him that day in the waters off Cocos Island was the result of normal animal behavior exhibited when faced with a perceived threat.

“In this case, the bite was like a dog bite,” he says.

“Have you ever seen how dogs take a quick bite when another dog gets too close? It doesn’t hurt, but it calms the other dog down.”

As part of his work, Hoyos, along with his colleagues, attached acoustic tags to sharks to locate their mating and spawning grounds, and were warned by tourists about the shark’s presence in the water.

It was 40 meters deep, and Hoyos told the captain of the boat he was on that he would be there for “five minutes tops.”

He then entered the water and began his slow descent.

“This huge female, between 3 and 3.5 m (11.5 ft) long, swam towards the bottom and I positioned myself to tag her at the base of her dorsal fin,” Hoyos recalls of her encounter with the shark.

But Hoyos, who has tagged many shark species over his decades-long career, says this animal responds differently to others.

“Obviously the tip (the metal tip attached to the cable hanging from the probe) goes in and turns and looks at me, unlike the other sharks I tagged that immediately ran away,” he recalls.

“I saw his little eye look at me and he turned away very calmly.”

Hoyos says he stared at the shark as it swam away, but then suddenly, out of nowhere, it lunged at him.

“I bent my head down and felt his lower jaw enter my cheek and his upper jaw enter my head. I think I was there for a second, inside his jaw, and then he opened it again.”

“When he closed, I felt the pressure of the bite, and then he let go of me,” he marvels.

The Galapagos shark’s 29 serrated teeth not only left deep wounds on Hoyos’ face and head, but also severed the air line of his diving apparatus.

He had survived the shark attack but was still in mortal danger.

Additionally, one of the teeth had torn his diving mask, and the bloody water was further blurring his already limited vision.

“When I realized there was no air coming out of the hose, I bought a second hose, which we call an octopus, which is used to give air when someone else needs it,” he tells BBC Mundo.

“But then I realized the regulator wasn’t working and was blowing air out instead of regulating it, so I had to remember my training and start regulating it with my lips.”

Bleeding, blinded, and with air escaping, Hoyos calculated that he had less than a minute to reach the surface.

“Since I couldn’t see anything, I looked for the light, which I knew was the surface. I started swimming upwards in a very coordinated manner because I wanted to avoid erratic movements that would attract the shark.”

After Hoyos reached the surface, a young man pulled him onto the boat, and when the captain saw his condition, he called the park ranger station to report the incident.

Hoyos explained that he did not feel the pain of his injuries until much later.

“Obviously I had adrenaline in my system, but the bite didn’t hurt that much. What hurt the most was the impact: When the shark bit me – an animal that was 10 feet long and that fast – it was like I had been hit by a car. I even had a huge bruise all over my jaw; I thought it was broken.”

When they docked, a team of paramedics were ready to provide him with emergency care.

Hoyos was lucky: Not only did he survive the attack and subsequent climb, none of his wounds became infected, and his recovery was quicker than anyone could have imagined.

“Doctors told me it was surprising: the attack happened on the 27th. [September]I traveled for 34 hours, they performed surgical debridement [removing damaged tissue]”And two days later they were already evaluating whether they could do reconstructive surgery.”

The situation could have been much worse for Hoyos. A young man who survived a shark attack in the Galapagos in the same region in 2017 had to stay in a hyperbaric chamber for almost a month because his wounds did not heal properly, according to doctors.

“They told me my recovery was incredible. After the surgery, doctors admitted how worried they were about infection because being on my face was a direct route to the brain.”

Hoyos smiles broadly, adding that he plans to get back in the water and has booked a diving trip for November 14.

And after surviving an attack of this magnitude, he says he has even more respect for the animals he works with.

“Many people think the oceans would be better off without sharks, but they actually say this because they don’t understand the critical role sharks play in maintaining the delicate balance.”

Pointing to the large scar on her cheek, he says: “This is proof that this female spared my life; I can’t put it any other way. This will enable me to continue speaking well of sharks and advocating for their conservation in the future.”

Meanwhile, the Galapagos shark with Hoyos in its jaw continues its natural life in the depths and hopes to see it again. And since he can mark it before it attacks him, that possibility exists.

“I will go to Cocos Island in January, we have a trip from the 20th to the 27th. And of course I will go to Roca Sucia [where the attack happened]”I’m going to dive in there,” he says firmly.