A 22-year-old man had the most terrifying moment of his life when he was tarpon fishing at sunrise in a tropical wetland in Florida in the United States.
Everything was going well and he even managed to catch a fish. As he started wounding the spool reel, he noticed a gigantic alligator raising its head out of the water and about to approach him. Stunned, he stepped back but the reptile chased him, a video of the incident showed. “Jesus Christ, I got to be careful here,” said Tommy Lee as he first saw the alligator.
“Oh, Jesus Christ. Gotta be careful here,” said Tommy Lee, immediately backing away from the shore edge. The gator swims to the shore and walks out towards the fisherman, causing him to fall back and get further away.
“Guess that’s the end of my fishing trip,” he nervously joked as he stared down the intimidating predator. The fisherman takes a few steps toward the alligator, thrusts his fishing pole, and even said, “Get back.”
The alligator chased Tommy for a few minutes but he managed to keep a safe distance all the time. When Tommy creeps up to the reptile slowly, it makes a quick movement before turning around,
The clip has now been widely circulated on Facebook and Twitter. It has also garnered thousands of views on YouTube.
The incident took place during the mating season for gators in Florida. Floridians have to be extra wary of gators at the moment, the males are getting a little lairy.
Savannah Boan, head of Crocodilian Enrichment at Gatorland, told Click Orlando:
“It is not unusual during this time to see lots of alligator stories in the news, however, I’ve seen more alligator stories in the news this year than I ever have in the history of my living in Florida.
“First of all, you need to watch every body of water, your bathtub, your swimming pool, your backyard pond, your mud puddles that your kids play in – anywhere an alligator can be found right now, because alligators are on the run, especially the smaller ones that are easier to hide.
“The big bull alligators are pushing all the little ones out because they want all the ladies to themselves.”
She added that people should contact the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) if people find a gator somewhere where they are as utterly unwelcome as a bathtub.
“If you do see one of those nuisance alligators, make sure you call FWC.”
“We have a program in place where we can bring some of those big old alligators that haven’t done anything wrong, they were just caught in the wrong place, at the wrong time. We bring them to Gatorland and they can live out the rest of their life here in alligator paradise.”
Watch the video below:
Sources: AWM, Click Orlando