A jaw-dropping rescue caught on camera has the internet buzzing after a young fisherman dove into the surf to save a struggling great white shark — and people watching couldn’t believe what they were seeing.
The wild moment unfolded at Hermosa Beach in Southern California, where 20-year-old Kevin Phan was fishing early in the morning when things took a sudden turn. Around 9 a.m., a juvenile great white shark got tangled in his fishing line, thrashing violently in the shallow water.
Instead of backing away, Phan ran straight toward it.
Video captured by stunned beachgoers shows him wading into the churning surf, getting dangerously close to the shark’s powerful jaws as he tried to free it. You can hear people gasping in the background as he leans in, attempting to cut the line.
At first, it didn’t go smoothly.
Phan struggled to slice through the line, and some onlookers even questioned whether the shark was still alive as it thrashed in the water.
But he didn’t give up.
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On his second try, using a small knife, Phan finally managed to cut the line and free the young predator.
That’s when things got even more intense.
With the shark still stuck in the shallows, Phan grabbed it by the tail and carefully turned it around, guiding it back toward deeper water. Moments later, the shark swam off — alive and free.
The crowd watching from the beach erupted into applause.
Now, the video is blowing up online, with viewers praising the risky rescue and calling Phan a hero.
“Animals know when they’re being helped,” one person wrote. “Bless that man.”
Others joked that the shark would spread the word underwater about the human who saved it.
“I hope he tells every shark in the ocean about this guy,” another commented.