'God wanted me to fight': Hawaiian surfer, who lost foot in shark attack, explains how his faith helped him survive near-fatal encounter



A Hawaiian surfer was able to fight off a near-fatal shark attack. The surfer credits his faith in God for giving him the strength not only to fight off the shark but also to deal with the distressing aftermath of losing his foot in the bloody encounter.

Mike Morita, 58, has been surfing a spot known as Kewalos for years. The shore area not far from downtown Honolulu on the island of Oahu's south shore is popular with surfers for its reliable waves and shallow, clear waters near a basin.

Morita went to do some surfing early on Easter Sunday morning before attending church services with his wife. Shortly after 6:15 a.m., Morita was lying on his stomach on his surfboard after riding a few waves when he felt excruciating pain in his right leg.

Morita told KHON-TV, "It wasn’t really like a chomp. It was just pressure. I can feel the strength of it, and right away I knew it was a shark."

"In that critical moment, I went to God," Morita said. "I kind of surprised myself that I went straight into prayer."

Morita said he prayed for the shark to release his leg but never thought he was going to die — even when the pressure intensified as the shark thrashed about.

"God wanted me to fight, so I started beefing," Morita proclaimed.

The shark pulled Morita underwater, and he fought back. He gave the beast a "bear hug" and grabbed its gills.

"I wrapped my arm around it and my body around it. And at that point I was trying to go for the eyes, but my hand ended up by the gills. So as soon as I touched by the gills, it let go," recalled Morita — who started surfing in the fourth grade.

Despite the dangerous shark in the water, fellow surfers frantically paddled to help Morita.

"The water was red — with my blood," he said. "I cannot believe how much courage my friends had."

"They said when they reached me, the shark was still on me, so they were scared for their lives too, but when it finally let go, they were there for me. They were in shock also," Morita said of the surfers who saved him.

The shark attack severely damaged Morita's right foot.

The Associated Press reported, "At one point, he looked back and saw only bone from ankle to knee on his right leg."

The surfers used board leashes to create a makeshift tourniquet. Paramedics said without that tourniquet, Morita would have bled to death.

They pulled him onto a longboard and brought him back to shore.

Morita was rushed to a local hospital and underwent emergency surgery. Doctors had to amputate Morita's right foot.

"My prayer now is they won't have to amputate above the knee," Morita said.

Despite the life-altering injury of losing his foot, Morita has turned to his faith in God to prevent him from getting angry or depressed.

"I would be mad at God, mad at the world, mad at the shark," he said. "I can honestly say I am at peace. I have no fear of the ocean right now."

Morita even joked that he should have gone to the 7 a.m. church service instead of planning to go to one later in the morning.

State officials suspect the animal was an 8-foot tiger shark.

Marine biologists believe recent heavy rains may have drawn sharks into the area.

"And it’s right at the mouth of the Ala Wai Canal, so all the water that runs down the mountains and feeds into the Ala Wai was being flushed down there, and that carries all these interesting scents and smells and garbage and things that will just attract the sharks in from outside," said Andrew Rossiter, the Waikiki Aquarium director.

According to the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources website, there hasn't been a shark attack reported in Kewalos since 2002.

Morita said he hopes to surf again.

"The doctors are telling me that it’s up to me whether what I’m going to do," he said. "Yes I’d like to surf again, but if I never surf again, I’m still happy, I'll be alright."

Morita remains in a trauma center for his shark attack injuries.

A GoFundMe campaign has raised more than $80,000 for his medical expenses.

Surfer recounts surviving shark attack: ‘God wanted me to fight’ www.youtube.com

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Remains of missing father of 3 located in shark's stomach, man identified by arm tattoo



The remains of a father of three who went missing last month have been found inside the stomach of a shark, according to reports.

Diego Barría, 32, was last seen riding his all-terrain vehicle on the beach in the southern Chubut province in Patagonian Argentina shortly before midnight on Feb. 18. He stopped to meet with fishing friends. Barría told his wife that he was running late, but would be home soon. However, Barría never returned text messages and phone calls to his wife. His wife reported her husband missing after not hearing from him.

Two days later, Barría's ATV was found wrecked on a beach near Rocas Coloradas. Following a thorough search that included divers and dogs that lasted over 40 hours, there were no signs of Barría near the damaged ATV. Police only found his helmet that had been split in two after an intense impact.

Eight days after Barría's disappearance, two fishermen reportedly found human remains in the stomach of a shark caught not far from where Barría's ATV was found. The fishermen caught three school sharks. Human remains were found inside the stomach of a 5-foot school shark.

The human remains included a forearm, which had a tattoo of a green and red rose. The fishermen took the forearm to the police.

Barría's family was able to identify the missing father of three through the tattoo.

Upon hearing of the news, Barría's wife Virginia Brugger wrote on Facebook, "My heart went with you! I love you forever."

Because of the smaller size of the shark, authorities don't believe that Barría died from a typical shark attack in the ocean.

Cristian Ansaldo — the police superintendent in the city of Comodoro Rivadavia — said, "One of the strongest hypotheses is that [Barría] collided with a rock [while driving the ATV] and that his body was carried away by the sea, but we are going to handle all the possible theories with the evidence found at the site. The vehicle will be analyzed to establish how the accident happened, because the vehicle was found further towards the coast, but it could have been moved there by the waves."

Ansaldo noted that there had been a strong tidal surge during the weekend when Barría disappeared.

The police said that a DNA test would be conducted to verify the identity.

"We and the prosecutor’s office need to carry it out scientifically," Ansaldo said.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Shark 'advocates' demand rebranding shark attacks as 'shark interactions'



Shark advocates are calling for people to refer to shark attacks as "shark interactions," according to a report in the New York Post.

What are the details?

Australian shark enthusiasts are urging the public to stop using the term "attack" when referring to shark bites, insisting that the media has "warped the reputation" of sharks and branded them cold-blooded killers.

Instead, they suggest the term "interactions" as a more neutral descriptor of a bloody attack.

"'Shark attack' is a lie," University of Sydney language researcher Christopher Pepin-Neff told the Sydney Morning Herald and insisted that most shark bites are mere "nips" and that the "choice of words can be potent since public fears about beach safety can be inflamed by alarmist language by politicians and the media."

What's more is that Australian government agencies have also begun rebranding "shark attacks" and, in working with shark survivors support group Bite Club, determine that a more appropriate phrase includes "encounters" or "incidents."

The Department of Primary Industries in New South Wales states, "NSW DPI is respectful that each incident is best described by the individual involved. DPI generally refers to 'incidents' or 'interactions' in our formal shark reporting."

One shark researcher at the country's Marine Conservation Society said that swapping the term "attack" for a more neutral and palatable phrase is necessary because it helps to "dispel inherent assumptions that sharks are ravenous, mindless, man-eating monsters."

Nathan Hart, an associate professor at Macquarie University, said that sharks are mainly just curious about humans.

"Sharks don't have hands, so if they want to explore something, they mouth it," Hart insisted. "Very rarely are humans consumed by sharks."

Queensland's Department of Agriculture and Fisheries told the Herald that there have been no formal directions "in this space" and that "some people may just have a personal preference for the language they use."

The Post reported that there were 13 known shark-related human deaths across the globe in 2020.