What was supposed to be the highlight of a 40th-wedding anniversary cruise turned into a nightmare when a Connecticut man was dragged underwater and mauled by a shark in the crystal-clear waters of the Bahamas.
John Schweizer, 69, of Niantic, was snorkeling with Caribbean reef sharks near Bimini on July 24 alongside his wife, Marcy, and their adult sons when disaster struck, he told WTNH News8.
“All of a sudden, one came up and just grabbed me right in the leg,” Schweizer recalled. “It was like a huge dog bite, very quick.”
The shark clamped onto his left shin and briefly pulled him underwater before releasing him.
Son Tom watched in horror as the predator surged up from below, later seeing the skin on his father’s shin peeled back so badly that bone was visible.
“It was so fast, so immediate,” Schweizer said. “One second.”
Schweizer scrambled back to the tour boat as crew members rushed everyone from the water.
Then they went on an emergency dash back to the cruise ship, cutting what should have been a 45-minute trip to just 10 minutes.
“We used many, many towels and tourniquets to hold and keep the blood at bay,” he told NBC Connecticut. “I was bleeding all over the place.”
A doctor aboard the ship spent three hours stitching Schweizer back together, closing the gaping wounds in his leg with 26 stitches.
“The doctor was amazing,” Schweizer said. “He just made sure there was no infection. Three hours of stitching me up, he did a spectacular job.”
He also suffered injuries to one hand, possibly from the shark’s teeth or dorsal fin, before later being transported to a Miami hospital. Remarkably, he was discharged after just one day and is already walking as he recovers.
Despite the terrifying ordeal, the retired financial adviser said he’s simply thankful the shark targeted him instead of his wife or sons.
“I’m happy it was me,” he said. “I get to have a good story to tell.”
That story got an unforgettable ending when Schweizer returned home to Niantic. His neighbors greeted him wearing full shark costumes in a playful welcome-home surprise.
“That’s my neighborhood,” he said. “They’re wonderful people.”
As for ever swimming with sharks again?
“No,” he said with a laugh. “Not at all.”
Schweizer’s ordeal is the latest in a string of shark attacks and shark sightings that have taken place globally. As of late July 2026, there have been 32 verified shark attack bites worldwide, according to tracking sharks.com.
But that figure is actually half of the 65 confirmed unprovoked shark bites in 2025, according to the Yearly Worldwide Shark Attack Summary.
The New York area has seemingly been under siege from a veritable sharknado in 2026 — with a spike in sightings and close encounters, and beaches from Long Island to The Rockaways have been closed.
On July 3, a swimmer was savaged on Jones Beach.
But experts speculate the increase in shark sightings is due to better surveillance methods. This year, Gov. Hochul increased Long Island’s fleet to 46 drones and 67 drone operators.
Don’t get back in the water yet, though. The 1,700-pound great white shark Contender — the biggest ever recorded in the Atlantic — is predicted to be headed to the Eastern Seaboard.
Dun. Dun.
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